Snow White with the Blue Eyes
by carnatiously
Summary: When an arrogant prince tries to keep Marinette's pretty blues by his side, she runs away and stumbles- quite literally- into Adrien and his companions. What path has her true blue opened up now? [Akagami no Shirayukihime AU]
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! New story. This is also chapter 49 of my Snippets collection, but I really wanted to ocntinue it here. Notice that this follows episode 1 pretty accurately, but since Marinette is a fighter some things will be changed up in the future!**

 **You don't need to see it to read this, but I highly recommend watching Akagami no Shirayukihime. ALL TIME FAVE! 3**

 **Anyways, enjoy, read, review, follow, favorite, do your thing! I love comments and suggestions :D**

Marinette could feel the dread in the pit of her stomach crawling up her neck as she stared down at the letter clenched in her hand. Yes, the paper was very fine quality, the kind that she'd only dream of sketching on, and it was closed with a seal of the most expensive wax, and the smooth ink was written into cursive words beautiful to look at, but-

They became less beautiful when read.

There wasn't anything glamorous about any of this other than the outward appearance.

 _You have been summoned to the Barbot castle tomorrow sharp at high noon. Prince Theo has considered taking you as his concubine. Take consideration and dress appropriately. You are lucky to have received such an offer. Any resistance will be futile._

The dread in her stomach slowly gave way to rage, causing her shaking fingers to clench around the parchment. How _dare_ that no good fool of a prince-!

Marinette took a deep breath to settle her mind and simmering rage, setting the letter down on her workshop counter. A determined expression set upon her face as she looked around, mentally making note of everything she had to do. The sun was still high in the sky; she could finish all of her commissions by sunset, pack all the money and essentials she had, and high-tail it out of the place in the midst of night.

Dangerous, yes, but there was no way she would just give in with a smile like a pretty little doll and be taken to that _fool's_ castle. Especially to _marry_ him.

And she knew why the letter was even sent, why the Prince of the land had gone sifting through millions of names to find a commonplace tailor like her and offer a marriage proposal. Offer- more like force upon.

It was because of her eyes.

All the people who came into her shop kept telling her how beautiful her bluebell eyes were, how they were a sight for sore eyes, how eye-contact with her would brighten their day. Heck, some had even gone so far as to visit her shop just to look at her eyes. In the beginning she found it kind of odd, but had quickly learned that all the people in the Barbot lands were good-natured and meant no harm. And, well, it helped her designing business, too! No complaints there.

In the time and age she was in now, any eye color other than the standard dark, dark brown was seen as an oddity- a rarity. Blue eyes were even rarer than green ones; and within those, blue eyes which weren't dark were _even less likely._ She'd heard some rumors that the Princess of the neighboring Bourgeois lands had striking blue eyes, but then again, rich people found all kinds of ways to change how they looked. Marinette had seen her parading through the streets once in a fancy horse carriage to make a deal with the Barbots, and instantly a twinge of irritation had flared through her. Something about the girl just annoyed her to no end, and it wasn't just the artificial-looking blue eyes she fluttered at every boy she deemed "worthy".

And so, Prince Theo- notorious for liking pretty things as a fellow artist, and always getting what he wanted- now wanted Marinette by his side. A pretty trophy.

Well, not today! Resistance will be futile? Ha!

Marinette tied an apron around her waist and immediately got to work, pulling out fabrics and dyes from her cabinets and sewing them together at a pace she'd never sown before. Even though she was going to run away, her clients didn't deserve any of this, especially when they'd already paid. She wasn't going to become a thief today and run off with the money they'd given her for commissions without finishing her job.

"A purple evening gown for Mme. Chamack," Marinette murmured, spreading the deep violet cloth out and cutting it. She took out another separate bolt of blue silk and cut into that as well. "Another doll for Manon." Yellow satin. "Mythological tapestry for Mr. Kubdel."

On and on this process went for hours, until Marinette had finished every one of her thirteen projects. The sun dipped down in the sky. She wiped sweat off of her brow and her dye-stained hands on her apron, proudly eyeing her work. Had it been under better circumstances, she'd dance in joy at her progress.

Carefully, Marinette placed name tags on each of the finished projects, each one containing a smaller apology at the bottom. She sighed, looking out the window to her workshop. The sky outside was dipped in deep oranges, purples, and pinks, the same ones that inspired her to be a tailor. The Barbot lands had the most beautiful views no matter where you went.

A frown tugged at the girl's face as she walked forward and placed a hand on the cool glass. "This is the last time I'm going to see you," she said into her quiet and empty workshop. She loved her home. It wasn't fair that she had to do this.

But she did, that was fact, and moping would do nothing about it. The same determination coursing through her again, Marinette pulled out a large knapsack from one of her cabinets and stuffed it with all the essential things she could find around her little shop. While she dearly wanted to bring all of her fabrics with her, there were just too many, and it'd slow her down. She opted on just bringing her basic sowing kit and her favorite shade of green silk. The girl paused in the middle of her packing and lit a candle when the room turned too dark from the setting of the sun, causing a soft orange glow to highlight her little shop.

In went all of her savings, a canteen of water, and a bag of nuts. The way she was going to travel, she'd need to keep her energy up. Riding at the back of a wagon wouldn't exactly ensure top-class catering.

Marinette dusted her hands off, sighing. Her pack was stuffed to the brim, a healing kit putting on more added weight. She called it her Miraculous cure. While she didn't pursue medicine, many people had made it a point that she definitely could have. Her Miraculous cure could quickly heal any sort of bruise, cut, fever- anything physical at all. When people asked her how it was made, Marinette always smiled and said "magic". She might need it on the trip- who knew?

Marinette closed up the leather sack and reached over in one of her cabinets again, this time much more vacant than before, and pulled out her hoodie. It was red with black spots. While it wasn't an ideal color for most people who'd, well, _run away,_ it was dear to her. She'd wear this to keep from the cold- and to hide her eyes.

Marinette slipped the hoodie over her head and looked over her shop one last time. The worn down sewing machine; the cushy seats at the front; the wooden floorboards, homey cabinets, and glowing yellow lights. The same shop her parents had helped her open up years ago. The same shop which her patrons frequented, in and out, and where the customers she was on more personal terms with had thrown her a surprise birthday party last year. The memories danced around her shop as if she was reliving them. She'd remember it all.

Marinette began to leave, but started as another idea entered her mind. Hurriedly rushing back into her shop and reaching into a drawer for one of the white silks she was going to abandon, along with a bluebell dye, Marinette set on coloring the cloth one last time.

It was nearing midnight when Marinette finished her work. She folded up the cloth that matched the color of her eyes and set it apart from the commissions on her table, tying a red bow around it with a snarky note on it.

 _For the Prince. The color you love, by your side forever._

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"Hello? Anybody there?" Marinette peered into the large home through one of the windows, knocking two more times. She could barely make out the silhouette of a staircase through the darkness, but that was it as far as she could tell. The inside of the house was completely dark. It could be the fact that the homeowners were asleep, or maybe the house was empty altogether. In any case, she wasn't getting in. The girl irritably sighed and plopped down on the grass outside, against one of the walls. Judging from the position of the moon in the sky, dawn was near. She could get a few hours of rest, and then figure it out in the morning. After all, she did deserve to rest; a four hour ride on the back of a wagon was tiring.

Marinette took her knapsack off of her back and snuggled up against it, yawning. Yes, that seemed like a good plan. Morning… it could wait until morning… and she did deserve it…

Sleep took her fast.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Marinette groaned as sharp, bright rays invaded her eyes, poking and prodding. She turned her head away and was only met with more sunlight. As if on cue, a bunch of birds started chirping, too. Usually she found it endearing but now she was wishing the feathered devils would just shut up.

The chirping grew louder, the sunlight brighter, and Marinette suddenly became aware of a hard wall at her back and a cramp in her neck. Groaning again, she pushed herself off the brick wall and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, cracking her mouth open in a yawn. As she opened her eyes, she was met with what she couldn't see the night before due to the darkness. She seemed to be in the middle of a forest, resting against the wall of a house- a fairly large house, at that. Even though it was probably empty, it seemed well maintained. The forest itself was lush, bursting with different shades of green, and the chirping birds were there fluttering amongst trees along with more silent butterflies and bees.

Marinette was stretching when a voice suddenly shouted out from above, causing her to gasp and scramble around to see what it was. A second thought in the midst of the shock reminded her to whip her hood up over her eyes.

"Jeez, do you have to go from such a spot!" The voice shouted again just as a boy launched himself off the roof of the house. That was when she saw his eyes.

Emerald. A striking color. Just like the color of the silk she'd packed- maybe even bolder. And, despite jumping off of a roof, the boy did it as though he had practice, like he'd done it many times before. He wore clothing that was obviously expensive to her sharp tailor's eye, even though it was scuffed up in places and the sleeves were haphazardly rolled up. His hair was wild, blonde locks all over the place, and was only getting wilder as the wind from his jump ruffled it up more. On his face he wore a confident, carefree grin, showing perfectly straight and white teeth. He turned his head towards where she presumed was his landing spot.

…Where she was sitting.

Marinette gasped and scrambled back, but the boy twisted in midair anyways, landing on the ground a few feet away from her on his arm with a painful thud. She winced from where she was sitting. The boy immediately sat up in a catlike, comical (she felt bad for feeling sort of amused, really she did) crouch and clutched his right wrist.

"Ow…" he groaned. From around the side of the house came two dark-skinned people, one boy and one girl. They were both wearing glasses and high-quality clothing as well. The girl had bouncing scarlet curls and the boy, in turn, had a red hood on top of his head that was set back.

The boy with the red hood ran forward first, standing over the green-eyed one. "Are you injured? Did you hit your head? What's one plus one?!"

"Eleven," the green-eyed one groaned back. Then he blinked. "Huh? Who are you?"

The one with the red hood fell to his knees, pointing at his face. "IT'S ME! NINO!"

The girl with the scarlet locks snickered. "So that's your name?"

"ARE YOU FOR REAL ALYA?!"

Marinette jolted as she realized this was her chance. While the three of them were busy, er, _conversing,_ she pulled her spotted hood down a little lower over her eyes and attempted to crawl away.

Key word being _attempted._

The green-eyed one suddenly turned his head and pinned her down with his one eyed stare. "Well?" She paused in her crawling.

"Who are you?" He swung up his sheathed sword, one she didn't notice before, over his shoulder blades with his left hand. "What are you doing so deep in the forest, hmm?"

Marinette sat up and waved her hands in front of her, trying to think of a plausible excuse. "Uh- I was just, following an unused road while running away-" Running away? _You just had to mention that, Marinette!_ "-uh, and I got lost!" She awkwardly laughed and tried to discreetly pull her hood down over her eyes.

Key word being _tried._

The boy took notice and situated the tip of his sheathed sword under the edge of her hood before- _nononononononono_ \- throwing it back over her head.

She blinked and looked up at him. He and his two companions looked surprised to say the least.

"Your eyes," he said, completely and utterly straightforward. "They're light blue."

She looked down. "Yeah. I know." She peeked up again and saw that his right forearm had a large, angry red mark on it. "Your right arm! It's hurt!"

He looked down to his arm with an air of indifference. "So what?"

Marinette pulled her knapsack towards herself and began rummaging around in it, looking for her Miraculous cure. While she didn't initially plan on using any of it on an overconfident boy, it was her fault he got hurt in the first place. "I have a poultice," she explained as she moved fabric around. "It can help a bruise like that…"

"No thanks."

Marinette blinked, pausing in her rummaging. "What?"

The boy pointed his sword at her, still sheathed. The morning light bounced off of it. "How can I trust you so easily? It could be poison for all I know. I have no real business with you."

Marinette narrowed her eyes. "Right…"

He lowered his sword just a fraction of an inch. "If you understand, then you should get going."

Marinette looked back to her sack, eyes still narrowed. Supposedly there were cocky people everywhere. But still…

Marinette grabbed the end of his sword, startling him. "Wha-"

With resolve simmering in her blue eyes, she pulled on the sheathed sword and brought it down on her own arm, hard. Immediately the skin turned an angry red and the pain pulsated throughout her arm. However, Marinette simply gritted her teeth and, with shaky hands, opened her Miraculous cure bag.

The green eyed boy and his two companions watched on in surprise as she spread the poultice on a bandage before laying it on her wound. She held her arm up for them to see and donned a smug smirk.

"Sorry, but I don't make a habit of carrying poison around. Had a rough experience before?"

The boy dropped his sword.

Not more a second later, both his companions burst out into laughter. The girl wiped a tear from her eye. "She sure got you good, eh Adrien?"

Adrien. So she wouldn't have to think of him as green-eyed boy anymore, what a relief.

Adrien himself chuckled a little, eyes smiling too, and then crouched down in front of her, sighing in relief.

"Sorry about that. I _have_ had rough experiences, you could say. My name's Adrien."

Marinette blinked, already having deduced this for herself. "My name's Marinette."

Adrien held up his injured arm in front of her as if for greeting, causing her to reel back a bit. "Nice to meet you! You sort of owe me a patch up, though."

Marinette gave him a deadpan stare. "Phrase it differently next time."

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

As Marinette worked on bandaging his arm, Adrien talked. They'd gone inside the house and sat in the living room. It was nicely furnished, with a colorful rug, a quaint fireplace, and two large chairs seated across a coffee table as well as a sofa near the back. All the furniture had bright, bolder colors and the inside of the house had warm lights. Marinette was correct about there being a staircase; it led up to a room she had yet to see.

"This house is unoccupied, but we come here often," he explained, then used his free hand to gesture behind him where his companions were sitting playing chess. "The one losing the game is Nino. Alya is soundly beating him."

Marinette raised her eyebrows. He was completely right, but didn't even look behind him.

Nino voiced her very thoughts. "H-How do you know for sure if you didn't look at our game?"

Marinette watched in amusement as an all-knowing grin formed on Adrien's face. "I just know." Nino huffed while Alya laughed at him.

"All right, done," Marinette said, letting go of Adrien's arm. The boy held it up and looked it over, raising his eyebrows.

"Wow, you're pretty good at this, Marinette!" he said, surprising her a little. Usually people messed up her name, or shortened it altogether since apparently it was too hard to say: Mari, Marien, Mariet, Marine- she'd gone through it all.

"Well, it's not my profession, but someone told me how to make this who was really good at healing," she said, remembering Tikki with a smile. She'd left a few years back to do castle work- that much Marinette knew, but she didn't remember the name of the lands Tikki was traveling to. They'd departed with lots of hugs and smiles and good memories.

"I see," Adrien said. His gaze switched from his arm to her. "So why did you run away from home?"

Marinette's eye twitched. Of course this guy had to remember that detail. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. "It doesn't matter," she said, choosing not to look at him. "I'm going for a walk."

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Marinette looked up at the sky as she walked with her left arm lightly clasped around her injured forearm. It really was a nice day. The path she walked on was riddled with fallen leaves from the trees around her. Wildlife pulsated everywhere, from the chirping birds to the jumping rabbits to the faint breeze. Marinette looked over her shoulder with a mild seedling of annoyance.

"Why'd you follow me?"

Adrien was walking behind her, casually looking off in every other direction. He shrugged. "I can't let an injured girl go into the forest by herself. It's not gentle-meown-ly."

Marinette groaned. "Seriously? You make cat puns? I feel like you make lots, with how smoothly that came out…"

Adrien grinned, unbeknownst to Marinette. "I have a tie to cats, I guess. But this place is a lot different from the town, so I'm more relaxed."

Marinette nodded, leaning back against a tree. "I know what you mean. The air is different." Marinette then gave him a sly smile. "You just revealed your honest feelings, didn't you?"

At Adrien's reddening face, she laughed. "How cute." Her laugh was immediately cut off with a hiss of annoyance as she tried to move forward and was roughly yanked back.

Adrien walked over to her side and observed what had happened. A jagged piece of bark had thoroughly snagged her hoodie from a few loose stitches, causing a tangled mess.

"Your hood is stuck," he said, and Marinette sighed.

"I guess I didn't check to sow it up before leaving," Marinette said. "Sorry, but can you cut it for me?" At Adrien's confused glance, she added, "It's okay if it tears. I can sow it again."

Adrien was about to oblige, but blinked and beamed as he saw a golden opportunity. He hopped back and looked into Marinette's bluebell eyes.

"I will, if you tell me why you ran away," he teased. Marinette gaped.

"You're not looking like a great person right now. I hope you know."

Adrien simply shrugged and grinned wider.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"He ordered you to _what?!"_

Marinette clenched her fists on her lap as she sat on the overgrown tree root next to Adrien.

"Become his concubine," she dryly repeated. "And for a boy who grew up eating silver coins, he always gets what he wants. He wanted to keep the color of my eyes next to him." Marinette clenched her fists tighter. "If I let him have his way, it'd be like he was buying a pretty colored cloth from the market."

"Marinette-"

"So," Marinette continued, standing up and looking back at Adrien. His eyes were slightly widened, completely matching the color of the forestry around him despite being dappled in mild sunlight. "I left a piece of dyed cloth behind to hopefully make him tire of me."

Adrien blinked and then burst into laughter, slapping his knee. He looked up again and grinned at her, not bothering to swipe away the multiple locks of hair between his eyes. She fought down the urge to do so.

"That was great!" He said cheerfully as he got up. "A good way to teach a pompous brat a lesson. It is your blue, after all."

Marinette followed him with her eyes as he walked forwards, confused. "My blue?"

"Well, yeah," Adrien said, looking up at the vibrant sky. "Blue represents truth, right? You'll find your right way because of the blue that seems annoying right now." He looked back at her with a cheeky grin. "Besides, there's no point in stealing a true blue."

Marinette gaped at him, astonished. "I thought you were just arrogant- but that's an amazing way of thinking!"

Adrien sweat dropped. "Is that respect, or not…?"

From a couple of yards away, comfortably nestled in their own trees, Alya and Nino watched on.

"She's not suspicious after all, huh?" Alya said, smiling at the sight. Nino also smiled, petting a rabbit in his lap.

"Not only that- Adrien seems to really like her."

"Mm."

Adrien and Marinette were walking towards the house together when the former noticed something, narrowing his eyes and running forwards. Marinette confusedly followed him, until she saw what was on the doorstep of the house. The same feeling of dread from before suddenly chilled her bones.

A basket sat on the doorstep, something inside it covered with a rich purple cloth. A red bow was tied around the handle.

"That's- that's the bow I tied the cloth with!" Marinette said as Adrien picked up the basket. Dread formed a lump in her throat as the wind gently lifted the purple cloth off of the basket, revealing expensive silks piled up inside with several yellow roses.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"So you came from the Barbot lands?" Adrien asked as he read the letter that came with the basket. Marinette absently unwrapped and rewrapped the ribbon around her palm and nodded.

"The person who sent this somehow tracked you from all the way across the border," Adrien pointed out as he waved the letter in the air. "He seems pretty spiteful to me."

Marinette forced out a laugh despite the dread she felt. "Right?"

"Don't laugh, this is serious!" Adrien said, leaning forward. "Was it so bad that you had to cross the border?"

Marinette looked down at the red ribbon resting in her palm and back to the basket of silks. A blue colored one rested on top. "Well, it's because of who he is…" At Adrien's prompting silence, she sighed. "It was Prince Theo-"

Adrien choked, lurching forward and slamming a hand on the table between them. "Th-Theo?! That- that… royal idiot?!"

"Yeah. Rumors of him spread to other countries, too?" Marinette sighed.

Adrien sat back in his chair, bristling. "He probably sifted through all the border crossing records just to find you."

Marinette looked down at her lap. "He'd go so far… no way…"

"He probably thinks you're his already," Adrien said.

Marinette swallowed a lump in her throat and reached forward for one of the pieces of cloth. The dye was exquisite. Tikki had shown her this kind before- it had a distinct scent which had people paying extra for it. But at the same time, this piece of silk was fraying at the edges.

"It's fraying," Marinette murmured. "Even though the dye is the expensive scented type, nobody will want this blue…"

Marinette gave a start when Adrien got up and walked over to her, taking her hand with the cloth in it in his own, encircling her wrist. Her eyes widened as he buried his nose in the soft cloth, inhaling. "Adrien…?"

"How rude," Nino called from the staircase, having long since given up at chess. Adrien choked and jumped away from the cloth. "If you wanted a sniff so badly you should have gotten one for your own."

"I-I didn't call to you!" Adrien spluttered as he marched up to Nino. "Stay out of it!"

"Ouch, dude!"

"Adrien!"

"What?" He asked, sharply turning around. Marinette stood there, looking at the cloth in conviction.

"Sorry. I said something stupid," she said, and Adrien's face immediately softened. And then his brows furrowed.

"Marinette… don't sniff the cloth," he said, and Marinette blinked in confusion.

"What-?"

Adrien abruptly swayed and fell to his knees, pitching forward. Alya and Nino leaped over the stairs and caught him before his head could hit the ground.

Marinette's eyes widened and she hurriedly rubbed the cloth on her bandaged arm. Just as she suspected, a light bluish substance rubbed off onto the white bandage that most definitely was not dye.

"It's poisoned!"

Alya's head snapped to hers, her hands currently cradling Adrien's head. "What?! Do you have an antidote?"

Marinette thought back to her knapsack, panic slowly filtering her system. "N-Not for inhalations-"

"Oh," a new voice said, and three heads in the room snapped to the front door where an unfamiliar man stood. "Miss Marinette was not the one who sniffed the cloth?"

"Who are you?!" Marinette spat, keeping no amount of venom from entering her voice. The monotonous man turned his head to regard her.

"I am Prince Theo's guard," he said. "Do not worry. I have an antidote." Marinette jerked back as he met her eyes again, this time with some sort of victory. "I trust you will come with me?"

Marinette took one look back at Adrien lying on the ground and clenched her teeth, glaring back at the man.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

The horse ride's luxuriousness couldn't hide the hateful atmosphere Marinette made sure she was putting up, but if thought what she was emitting back then was a hateful aura, she'd laugh now.

"So you're Marinette? I see," Theo said as he looked at her from every angle as if she were cloth at a market. She stood stock still, her shoulders squared and her eyes burning. "I'm surprised," Theo continued. "The cloth you left behind was the same exact color!" He walked around her once more and then towards his chair a little ways ahead of her, in front of two large windows which were doors leading out to a balcony. The room was large and with plenty of light, the windows behind Theo having rich red curtains. A table was placed next to his chair, containing a bowl of fruits and a box of something else she didn't know of as well.

"Um, what about the antidote for my friend?" Marinette asked, and Theo held a hand up.

"Hang on a sec!" He turned around and sat down in his chair, crossing his legs and leaning an elbow on the table. "See, offering a proposal and being rejected is humiliating for any man," he began. "For me, even more so! Public rating has dipped for me." Theo dramatically sighed and turned in his chair, placing the back of his hand on his forehead. "So, to bring the ratings back up, I'd have to have you become my concubine."

Marinette froze in place, no thanks to the chill that suddenly invaded her body. She narrowed her eyes. "What about the antidote?" She pressed on, and Theo waved his hand.

"Oh, I can have it delivered to him easy if you just say yes," he said, and then pulled the box from the table. He unlatched it and picked up a piece of blue silk from the inside, letting it hang from his two pinched fingers. "Or should I send him this instead?"

Theo reached for the cloth with his other hand and easily teared it from the other end, letting go of the two ragged pieces and letting them flutter down to the ground. Marinette shakily followed them with her eyes, fists clenching in rage.

' _Blue represents truth, right? You'll find your right way because of the blue that seems annoying right now. Besides, there's no point in stealing a true blue.'_

Some path she'd found.

Theo walked forwards and she could tell he was looking at her eyes, even as she looked at the ground. He reached out with one hand and angled her face so he could see better.

"For me, I know your eyes are very pretty," he said with a smile. "So you'll stay in my sight."

Marinette stared up at him and clenched her teeth in resolve. Closing her eyes, she slapped his hand away roughly, causing him to keel back. He stumbled, but found his footing. "Wh-what-!"

"Fine, Prince Theo," she said his name like a sneer. She finally opened her eyes and glared at him viciously, inwardly cheering when she saw him sweating. "Take me if you dare."

A muffled commotion outside caused both of the parties to look towards the door.

"Hey! Hold on-!"

A couple of clashing sounds later, the doors suddenly bursted open, causing Prince Theo to jump back. In the doorway stood Adrien with his sheathed sword.

"I BEG TO DIFFER!"

Marinette floundered, her mouth opening and closing like a fish's. "A-Adrien!"

"Why, you-!" The same emotionless guard from before now, lo and behold, _angrily_ unsheathed his sword and lunged at Adrien. Said boy simply narrowed his eyes and smoothly blocked without unsheathing his sword, sidestepping the man and knocking his feet out from under him with one strong stroke. The guard fell and landed towards two other guards, unconscious under Alya and Nino.

"Would you stop making such dirty jokes?" Adrien said, glaring at the spluttering Theo. Then, to Marinette, he smiled, holding up his arm with the bandage unraveling from it. "Tie this for me?"

Marinette rushed forward. "Wait- what about your body?"

"I've been building up immunity to poison for a while now," he said. "No worries."

"But-"

"I see!" Adrien and Marinette turned to see Theo standing now with his hands at his hips. "So you're the one who accidentally poisoned himself. What a shame," Theo shook his head as Adrien bristled. "I was meaning to immobilize Miss Marinette and take her home."

"So you sent those poisoned cloths," Adrien snapped, and Theo bared his teeth in a snarl.

"Watch how you talk to me! You and I live in different worlds, you should know. I could have you soundly imprisoned."

"Well, I apologize, First Prince Theo of the Barbot lands," Adrien said, beginning to pull out his sword. Marinette watched on in confusion as Alya and Nino moved forward and flanked his sides.

Adrien held out his sword. On the hilt was an elaborate marking with a bold green paw print in the middle. Theo narrowed his eyes. "That crest…?"

"Let me introduce myself. I am Adrien Agreste, Second Prince of the Agreste lands!"

The bold declaration echoed in the room for a few moments before Theo visibly began to freak out.

"Second…" He spluttered. "Prince? _Agreste?"_

Marinette's jaw also dropped. "What?!"

"It's true," Adrien said to Marinette. "But I didn't think the First Prince of the Barbot Lands would try to poison me."

Theo fell out of his chair. "You-! You have no proof that it was me!" He gestured wildly around him. "It could have been anybody!"

Nino narrowed his eyes. "There's plenty of evidence in my eyes."

Alya mirrored Nino's expression. " _We_ could have _you_ soundly imprisoned," she said, imitating his words from before. "And your social status would reach a new all-time low."

Theo was having difficulty breathing. He fell out of his chair and began to scramble backwards when Adrien walked towards him.

"We'll keep your deeds a secret if you agree to leave Marinette alone," Adrien firmly said. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "And never say her name again."

Theo confusedly cocked his head. "How do you know Marinette-"

Adrien swung his sword towards Theo's chest. The prince shrieked and scooted back farther, causing the doors to his balcony to swing open. He fell onto the balcony.

"What did I just say about her name?" Adrien narrowed his eyes.

"Okay, okay!" Theo cried. "I promise, geez!"

Adrien lowered his sword and looked back to Marinette. "Any words you want to say to him before we leave?"

Marinette narrowed her eyes and walked forward, crouching in front of Theo.

"I can sow this for you," she said, holding up the two pieces of the blue cloth he'd torn. Theo gulped and backed against the railing. "It looks like there's a little tear. Also…"

"Wh-what?"

Marinette glared up at him through her bangs. "Hurry up and give Adrien the medicine."

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Adrien tilted his head back as the vial's contents were emptied into his mouth. He swallowed and sighed with relief, setting the vial down.

Before he could utter anything, though, Marinette beat him to it.

"Sorry."

He blinked, surprised. Marinette was standing a couple of feet away from where he was sitting. They'd gone back to the house in the forest, and the setting sun was causing the place to be bathed in an orange glow.

"Huh?"

"I'm grateful you helped me. But at the same time, I just managed to cause you trouble…"

Adrien snorted a little, standing up next to Nino and Alya. "Come on, don't be like that. It wasn't your fault."

Alya nodded, crossing her arms. "It was Adrien's fault for trying to be macho and sniffing the cloth." Adrien spluttered but he went ignored. "Besides, us three-" She gestured to herself, Adrien and Nino. "-we should have been more careful." Nino and Adrien nodded in agreement.

Marinette twisted the cloth of her hood in her hands. "Still…"

Adrien walked over in front of Marinette. She looked up. "You could think of it as trouble, or you could think of this as the path that your blue led you to," he said, and Marinette's expression turned surprised. "This is fate, isn't it? We sure met under the most coincidental circumstances."

Marinette finally smiled at that. Adrien offered her his hand with a smile.

"So, you can come with us?"

Marinette's eyes flickered from Alya, to Nino, to Adrien. They all smiled at her.

It reminded her of her shop. Of her parents. Of Tikki.

Marinette gingerly took his hand.

"Sure."

 **heck if im not continuing this im making a new story yall**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Here we come! AHH YOU'RE ALL TOO NICE I WANS'T EXPECTING THIS GOOD OF A REACTION I SWEAR THIS IS WHAT CLOUD NINE FEELS LIKE**

 **Like I said before, this won't follow the show exactly cus Marinette's a fighter! Yeah! also LMAO YALL POINTED OUT MY DUMB MISTAKES IM SO SORRY COUGH**

 **Like the whole "sow" and what concubine really means- thanks so much, really, I laughed in amusement but mostly mortification there.**

 **Enjoy, make sure to review, all that buzz!**

Marinette frowned as she looked through the list of jobs available. She walked down the busy marketplace streets, reading the list clutched in her hands. Down the long cobblestone road, there were stalls set up near everywhere, selling things from trinkets to fruits. Up above, the double-story wooden houses that were built along the road had interconnecting lines with clothes hanging off of them, fluttering in the wind. The weather was pleasant and the people chattering and cheerful. The Agreste lands could rival the Barbot lands in terms of joy and beauty.

Since she couldn't exactly go back to the Barbot lands, especially with the way things had become, she'd moved to the Agreste lands about a week back with what money she had. Marinette was lucky that she had run into Adrien and he'd lent her his strength. She'd been managing just fine so far, and had even begun trading morning breakfasts with the sweet old lady next door, but it was about time she got a job to earn some income.

Marinette couldn't afford one of the big wooden houses like the ones on the street she was walking right now, but she did afford a little apartment off to the side using the money from her tailoring. Speaking of tailoring…

"Repairman, carpenter, house cook…" Marinette sighed as her eyes roamed further down the list. "I don't see tailor on this list. But for now, I can try to find a job on my own." Nodding, Marinette made her way further down the cobblestone roads, smiling at anyone who made eye-contact with her (and promptly paused in the road).

Finally, after a good amount of searching, she found a little sign poking out that read 'Fabrics Store'. Apparently it was one of the highest quality shops around in the area.

Marinette carefully opened the door to the quaint shop. A little bell jingled. Inside, behind a counter, a man and a woman were receiving payment from another customer. Marinette's eyes widened as she took in the cloths stacked behind the counter: they had colors she'd never been able to find, or make, dye for; textures she'd only dreamt of; and the extra ornamentations, sequins and beads that were stacked in jars off to the side were dazzling all on their own.

"Hello, how can we help you?" The woman said kindly. Marinette blinked and snapped out of her trance, walking towards the counter.

"Um, can I work here as a tailor?" She asked, hoping for the best but at the same time expecting the worst.

The man rubbed his chin. "A tailor, huh? Sorry, but we don't really have a need right now…" He trailed off when he looked Marinette in the eyes and the woman- who Marinette assumed was his wife- nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Don't be rude!" She chided. "What would our regular think?"

Marinette cocked her head at the new information. "Not to be intrusive, but… is your regular someone especially important?"

The woman nodded. "Oh, yes. She's actually a court herbalist, but often treats her apprentices. She said cloth reminds her of someone she used to know, so she buys from here."

Marinette smiled as the tale reminded her of Tikki, her old mentor. Back when she and Master Fu were still taking care of her, Tikki had taught her everything she knew now- from healing, to sewing, to even fighting with a kusarigama. Tikki also happened to be a very talented herbalist who was too kind for her own good.

The woman shook her head. "Sometimes I try using her good deeds as a means to encourage this man here," she gestured to her husband. "But alas."

"Oi!"

"I know what you mean," Marinette lightly giggled. "Those kinds of people are hard to come by."

The couple observed her for a moment before the man reached beneath the counter and pulled out a paper. "Here, tell you what. The castle court is having a tailor's apprenticing test soon."

Marinette took the paper and read over it with wide eyes. "What…? Court tailor?"

The man smiled at her. "Try your best there, okay?"

Marinette finally looked up from the paper to see the man smiling. She beamed at him in turn and managed a hasty thank you before rushing out the doors.

She knew where she was going next.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Kim yawned loud and long and began to nod off. Max sighed before reaching over with his staff and firmly hitting Kim on the back of the head. The taller boy immediately yowled.

"Hey, what was that for-!"

"Somebody's coming," Max interrupted, thankful that a coincidence had saved him from explaining himself- again (how hard was it to understand that you don't sleep on a job?). The steps grew closer and closer until a girl was standing in front of the gates to the castle.

Kim and Max were guards of the Agreste castle. Despite being on relatively close terms with the Second Prince, Adrien, they didn't use that to their advantage and instead advanced on their own. Although, Max could very well live off of just being a scholar instead of double-timing as a guard too. But, Max liked working with his friend Kim.

The Agreste castle itself was beautiful: white stone was built into what was the latest architecture, with plenty of windows, ornamented railings, and arches. With the position they were in, they got to enjoy the view.

"Halt!" Max said, ever the dutiful. "You cannot enter the castle gates without a pass."

A girl stood in front of them, taller than Max but shorter than Kim. She wore a simple white knee length dress with pink leggings underneath and grey boots. Slung across her body was a brown satchel, with some pink embroidery on the flap. Over her shoulders was a slightly peculiar red hood with black spots all over it. The hood was currently down, so they could see that she had dark hair and-

"Blue eyes!" Kim blurted out and Max jumped. When had Kim gotten next to him instead of where he just was at his post?! "This is the person-!"

Max promptly pulled Kim down by his robe and roughly patted him on the head. "Sorry about that," Max apologized to the baffled girl. "We've just been informed that you're a friend of Prince Adrien's."

The girl relaxed despite the odd scene that was being put up. "Ah, it's okay. I'm here to see Nino or Alya of the royal guard…?"

"Hey!"

The three of them whipped around to see Adrien somehow crouching on top of the gates to the castle. Again, Marinette noticed how catlike it was and had to stifle a laugh- maybe it did make sense considering the Agreste kingdom's animal was a black cat, but this was still a bit much!

Kim immediately shot up like a bullet and returned to his post.

"P-Prince Adrien!" Max called out. "What are you doing?!"

Adrien leaped down from the high gates and casually walked over to them. Today his clothes were new and not scuffed up- yet. The black vest, grey undershirt, brown trousers, and boots were in for the same fate yesterday's clothes had suffered. His hair was already all over the place.

Marinette raised an eyebrow. "What _are_ you doing?"

Adrien innocently blinked. "I'm just getting some exercise! With all the writing I've been doing lately my body will go soft at the desk…"

"So you abandoned your deskwork."

"Ouch. I also wanted to see you, you know." Adrien's face softened. "It's been a while."

Kim and Max watched their interactions and their faces suddenly got piping red as Adrien and Marinette smiled at each other. Was this it? _Was the Prince infatuated?! Had he fallen this time and not physically?!_

"Adrien!" Nino's voiced wafted from around the castle. "Where'd you run off to this time?"

Adrien balked. "Uh, Marinette! You came here for a reason, right?"

Marinette nodded. "You asked me to tell you whenever I was going out of town, so that's why I-"

"Let's go now, then!"

"Huh?"

Nino's voice got closer and Adrien began running off in the direction of the port. "Hey, Max, Kim!" The two guards snapped to attention. "Make up something to tell Nino, would you? Thanks!"

The two guards watched Marinette hurriedly utter thanks and run after the Prince, equally bemused and baffled. Just what crazy new shenanigans would arise now that Marinette was added into the mix? As if Adrien himself wasn't enough!

"Oi, Adrien, where're you off to!"

Max sighed. No story would be believable.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Even though Adrien could have gone in a fancy carriage like the Prince he was, he chose to go in a commoner's carriage. Marinette didn't have a problem with it, but was still confused.

"Wouldn't you want to take one of your own carriages?" Marinette asked as they walked towards the wagon. It was simple, pulled by one horse and having wooden seats, and the cover that was to keep the sun out was old and slightly dirty.

"Nah, not really," Adrien answered. "Then they'd all know where I was going. Besides, it's important to know all sides of your country, not just the rich and fanciful side."

Marinette offered him a small laugh. "Again with the great thinking, hm?"

They climbed onto the carriage with four other people: a woman and her child, a man in his middle ages, and an elder. They all wore simple brown clothing and the child was eating from a piece of bread.

Halfway into the ride, the child noticed Marinette's eyes and tugged on his mother's sleeve. "Mom, why are her eyes so blue? It's so bright! Why?"

Marinette awkwardly scratched her cheek as the mother shushed the child.

"Where are your manners? Just eat your bread quietly! Heavens…"

The child looked a bit downtrodden and Marinette leaned forward in attempts to cheer him up.

"You want to know why they're so blue?" She said in a hushed voice as if it were a secret. The child immediately perked up. "Two pieces fell from the sky and- _bam!_ Straight into my eyes!"

Marinette laughed along with the child. Excitedly, he turned to his mother and pulled on her sleeve again. "Hey, can we go to the summer fields? I want to see the sky there! The blue sky!"

The six people in the carriage heartily laughed, expelling the previous mood.

"So where exactly are you headed to, Marinette?" Adrien asked after the laughing died down. Marinette was busy taking notes on a pad of paper.

"I want to go to that mountain there, across the bay," Marinette said, reaching out of the wagon and pointed to a peak on the other side of the expanse of water. The port town was visible from where the wagon was. "They have rare herbs that can be used in dyes for cloths. And after that, I'll go back to the town and try to learn some things about tailoring and designing from shopkeepers."

"I see," Adrien said. "But aren't you already a tailor?"

Marinette held her pencil up to his nose, causing him to cross his eyes looking down at it. "There's always room to get better. I want to enter for the court tailor apprenticeship, and for that, I'm going to study lots."

Adrien gave a start at that. If Marinette could enter as a court tailor apprentice, then she'd be given living quarters within the castle. In other words, he'd get to see her much more often.

"I'll take you to the forests here tomorrow, then. You should do your best." Adrien beamed at her. Marinette smiled at him in turn, lowering the pencil.

About forty minutes later, the wagon was pulled to a stop at the port town. As she got off, Marinette's eyes widened in wonder and she turned her head in every direction, drinking in the details.

There were little canoeing boats along the side of the harbor, next to where large boats were docked. Along the streets were broad, colorful houses, with green shutters and open windows. Fruit stalls were set up with bright canopies and the place was thriving, alive, with the thrum of horses trotting and people chattering.

"This place is amazing!" Marinette exclaimed. Adrien came to stand beside her with a proud sort of look on his face.

"People from all cultures come to this port town," he explained. "It's very diverse here."

Marinette could only silently agree as she saw a dark-skinned woman walk alongside a fair man, and a woman in a hijab holding hands with her two children.

"Adrien," Marinette said, startling the boy. "What you said about knowing your country- is that why you don't order servants to get you what you want?" she asked. "Prince Theo usually did that."

"Well, yeah," Adrien replied. "I don't like treating others like they're inferior. We're all humans. Besides," he continued, breathing in the fresh air with a smile. "This country is charming. I want to see all of it."

Marinette regarded him with a small smile on her face. "I see."

"The ship's leaving!"

Marinette whipped around to see a man ringing a bell above his head, shouting with every chime. Marinette quickly grabbed the strap of her bag. "I'm going now, Adrien. I'll be back by sunset!" With that, she ran off towards the ship and made it on just as it began to deport. Adrien watched her go with a grin.

The grin immediately dissolved into a scowl when he overheard two middle aged men talking.

"Did you see that girl's blue eyes?"

"Sure did. It'll be easy getting hold of her and catching a good price!"

Adrien stepped forward to catch their attention and made the move of unsheathing his sword, a deadly glint in his eye.

The men ran off shrieking. Nearby on the same boat Marinette had boarded, a young man in a long purple scarf stared at Marinette for a few seconds before walking off in the other direction.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Marinette sighed in relief when her feet touched land three hours later. The boat ride was relatively pleasant, with less gawkers and rocking, but she didn't fancy boats all that much in the first place.

Immediately the girl set off towards the forest, intent on gathering herbs for dyes. She walked for a bit before spotting something pink out of the corner of her eye.

She ran towards the blossoms and kneeled, delicately cupping one in her palm. "Chrysanthemum blossoms!" The girl breathed. "And they're pink, so there's an acidic source around here. That's good for dying cloths."

Marinette was picking her second chrysanthemum flower and putting it in her bag when the sunlight that was warming her back was suddenly cut off. A purple piece of cloth drifted into her peripheral vision.

Instantly the girl remembered Tikki's training and lurched forward on her hands, flipping over. The two chrysanthemum buds, along with a bottle of dye, spilled out of her bag. She whipped around just as the mystery man threw something at the ground. Smoke exploded, a dark screen instantaneously rising up, and Marinette coughed, her eyes watering. Everything disappeared around her in a haze of greys.

"Nice to meet you."

She registered a sharp pain in her head before everything spun and went black.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Adrien swung his wooden sword against Nino's, the two of them clashing fiercely. It was about forty five minutes to sunset, the sky tainted in a light Prussian blue, and Adrien was having his daily sparring session with Nino. Alya casually leaned against a nearby wall, waiting with two towels on her arm. Nino leapt back and regarded Adrien with half a smile.

"Somebody's in high spirits today?"

Adrien grinned as he ran in again, feinting a left swing before sidestepping, curving his sword under and pointing it at the unsuspecting Nino's neck. The dark-skinned boy blinked in surprise, his sword stilling to the side.

Adrien smirked and retracted his sword. "Today's escapade was worth it, and I gained lots of energy," he said, and Nino snorted.

"For _you,"_ the boy said as he accepted the towel Alya offered him and wiped his forehead. "It's nothing but trouble for me."

Alya tossed Adrien the other towel and the blond caught it, wiping under his bangs.

"In any case, if you gained that much energy you can do your deskwork now," Alya said with a smirk. Adrien's form sagged. He looked up at the sky with a sigh.

 _Marinette is out there working hard,_ Adrien thought with determination. _I will too!_

Alya and Nino watched as Adrien marched back to his study room.

"We should have gotten Marinette here years ago."

"Right?"

Adrien walked towards his study room with conviction. It was almost sunset. If he could finish his work by then, then he'd have more free time to spend with Marinette once she was back in the morning.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

The first thing Marinette registered once she woke up was her headache. It hurt. A _lot._ 'Headache' was a sore understatement.Marinette winced at the persistent pounding. And it didn't help that her head was resting against hard cobblestone, either-

Wait, what?

Immediately Marinette remembered what had happened and tried to push herself up with her hands, only to find that they were thoroughly tied behind her back with thick rope. The girl struggled and sat up without using her arms, surveying her surroundings even through the ridiculous spinning her head was putting her through.

It was a jail cell.

She was sitting on a large red rug. In the corner there was one torch with some flint on the ground underneath. Right next to her, there was a barrel, and up above was a small opening in the stone also covered with bars. It was night time outside. The cell itself was dingy, dirty, and guarded by thick iron bars.

"You awake?"

Marinette gasped and sharply turned her head, only to regret it when her head angrily pounded harder. She squinted and through her blurry vision, she made out a man. A long, purple scarf wound around the bottom half of his face and the tails dropped down to his waist. Other than that peculiar artifact, everything else about him was pretty ordinary looking: white shirt, brown trousers, brown boots, dark brown hair tied into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. Except Marinette knew for sure that in his shirt he hid smoke bombs- and possibly other things. Not very ordinary, then.

"You can call me Mister Akuma," the man said as he walked forward and crouched in front of her. Marinette narrowed her eyes and leaned back. "Ah, don't be so harsh. Do you remember my greeting at the bottom of the mountain?"

"Don't you know smoke is bad for the environment?" Marinette snapped back without missing a beat. The man simply rested a cheek on his palm as he looked into her eyes.

"Something that a Prince couldn't get his hands on," he mused. "How big a price do you think that'll fetch, Miss Blue?" Marinette said nothing, choosing to continue her glowering. "For example, a naturally born blue-eyed beauty adorned in jewels… or something. Rich people have weird tastes."

"You're a disgusting person," Marinette seethed, and the man got up from his crouch, heading back to the entrance of the cell and leaning against it.

"Of course, I could spare a few more coins to buy those things that rich women like to put around their eyes… to darken the lashes, or whatever. It wouldn't hurt to keep you around that much longer." He moved outside of the cell and situated his hands on the bars. He smirked. "What do you think, Miss Blue?"

The bars slammed shut in front of Marinette's face.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"Marinette's not here?"

Adrien had gone to where Marinette's apartment was almost right after he woke up so he could take her to the forests like he'd promised, but Marinette's neighbor had beat him to it. She was old, holding a tray with bread in it, with a kindly rounded face. That face was currently creased in worry.

"Usually she's here by nightfall," the old lady said. "But her lights weren't on at all yesterday. And this morning when I came to trade breakfasts with her, she wasn't here…"

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, uneasiness filtering through him.

"I wonder where she went… huh?" The woman turned, startled, as Adrien leapt onto his horse and pulled on its reigns, causing it to rear on its hind legs before dashing off in a sprint.

Adrien narrowed his eyes, not bothering to shake the bangs out of his face as the wind blew against his hair. He held on tight to the reigns of his horse as he led it through a mad dash to the port town. It'd be much faster to go around the bay by horse; he didn't know which boats were taking off, and even if he did, none of them would be in a hurry to speed over to the other side and he didn't want to cause a panic within the people.

Although… that considerate thought might have been in vain as now people were beginning to take sight of his dash and worriedly clear the way.

Adrien simply clenched the reigns tighter and urged his horse on, making his way around the bay.

What usually would have taken four hours was done in three hours and forty-five minutes. People conversed in worried, hushed whispers as Adrien broke through the crowds on his stallion. When he finally neared the mountain, Adrien jumped off of his horse and ran into the base of the mountain himself, searching around every tree for anything that could be any sort of clue.

That was when he smelled smoke.

Adrien covered his nose and squinted, following the thinning grey haze to its center through the trees. It seemed to have been a while since the smoke had been about, since he had to run for a few minutes before reaching the center.

There, on the ground, were two chrysanthemum blossoms next to a bottle of dye.

Adrien picked up the bottle of dye and frowned. She was here.

He looked to the side and saw that there was an empty shell of a smoke bomb, a spherical husk. From beyond that there were heavy footprints in the foliage, as if someone had been carrying extra weight while walking. Adrien clenched his teeth, feeling a pain in his jaw from how tightly he ground his teeth.

Marinette.

 _Meanwhile…_

Marinette panted, the sawing of the rope getting progressively more difficult. 'Mister Akuma' had left several hours back and she'd immediately set on grinding the rope against the cobblestone wall. However, it was proving a difficult feat for three reasons: one, sawing a rope against stone took long enough as it was. Two, the rope was especially thick. And three, Marinette's head was _still_ pounding. Apart from those three reasons, it also felt like an eternity since she was sitting in the cell.

Marinette suddenly stilled as she heard footsteps approaching. The bars to the jail cell were heaved up before the man entered, this time with a tray of food.

"Here, food. You want to eat, don't you?"

Marinette chose to look at her legs, her breath bated, and stifled a scoff. _How would he expect me to eat with bindings anyways?_

The man just scratched his cheek before setting the food down on the barrel. He turned around to exit the cell.

 _This is my chance- now!_

With all of her strength and a madly beating heart, Marinette slammed her shoulder into the barrel, ignoring the pain. The heavy piece of wood knocked into the man, who stumbled with a shout. Marinette tore her worn bindings apart with a sharp pull, _snap,_ and gathered the rope in one hand before grasping for the rug underfoot and pulling on it, causing the man to completely fall down on the cell floor with the barrel and food on top of him.

Marinette made a dash for a large piece of flint before sprinting back towards the cell door. The man struggled to get up and reached out. "Damn it-!"

The girl leaped out of the entrance before slamming the bars down, hard with a resonating clang, and running down a passageway. The flint and rope were still clutched in her hand.

Marinette swayed and leaned against a wall after running for a few meters, her breathing ragged. Her head wasn't cooperating with her. Even if she wanted to fight, she'd achieve nothing but look like a drunken fool with the state she was in now.

She paused to tie the rope around the piece of flint tightly before setting off again down the passageway. Every window and door was locked and barred; everything on the first floor was shut. Outside, she could just make out the night sky and hear chirping crickets.

A whole day. She'd been in that cell with a sore head, sawing away at the rope, all day.

Marinette made her way around the first floor. Everything she'd explored so far was locked.

"You won't get far."

Marinette sharply inhaled and turned around to see Mister Akuma up on the second floor, a keyring spinning around his index finger.

"I had the keys," he explained as he held his cheek in his palm. "Sorry."

Marinette only narrowed her eyes. _He's on the second floor… that must mean there's an exit there!_

Marinette tore away from him towards a different set of stairs. Before she could even place foot on the first step, though, he was there at the top of the case.

She ran off again, searching for another way up. Marinette turned a corner and felt her heart fall as she was met with a dead end.

The footsteps approached.

"Are you finally done running?" The man asked as he came to stand behind Marinette. The girl was kneeling on the ground, looking ready to accept defeat. "No more complaints?"

"You want blue eyes so badly?" She quietly asked, causing him to stop advancing forward in confusion. She whirled around with a bottle of blue dye. "Then have some of your own!"

She twisted the cap open and emptied near half of the contents straight into the man's eyes with a flick of her wrist, causing him to yowl as his vision was blocked. She then took her rope-and-flint contraption and swung it. _Not a kusarigama, but it'l l have to do._ She let the makeshift weapon gain momentum before soundly swinging it into one of his knees, causing him to fall to the ground with a pained grunt. Marinette then flipped her bag closed and ran around the man scrubbing at his eyes, swerving onto a staircase.

Just as she thought, when she was finally up there were windows along the wall- not a single one with bars on it.

Marinette's knees suddenly buckled and she grabbed onto the wall, taking deep breaths. _Come on, Marinette! Just a little more._

She ran towards the window and slipped her fingers underneath the ledge, heaving it up. One look outside the window had her gripping the window ledge in anxiousness.

It was high. Remarkably high. If she jumped, in the condition she was in now, she'd definitely faint and then be captured all over again. There was a tree nearby, too, but-

Marinette gasped as she looked at the tree, and then down to her rope. If she timed it right…

 _No time for hesitation!_

Marinette swung the rope around to gain momentum like she had when she hit the man's knees. She flicked her wrist out the open window with all the precision she could muster and watched with bated breath as the flint flew towards the tree's branch-

 _Yes! It wrapped around the branch!_

Marinette readied herself on the window ledge and made sure she was grabbing the rope tight before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, and opening them up again.

Then she jumped.

She was sailing through the air for a few seconds before the rope carried her further than the tree branch. Her hands slipped and she found herself falling, landing on the forest ground –luckily- on her knees and palms. She shakily got up and winced, seeing how there were red spots on her tights and scraped hands.

"Just… stop- running already," the man's ragged voice came. Marinette froze and swallowed a lump in her throat. _Not again…!_

He was carrying a torch to make his way through the night. It lit up, making his skin and the area around him light up eerily. Around his red and puffed up eyes, there were big blue smudges, and he had a slight limp.

 _Just why won't he give up? Isn't he tired by now?_

Marinette struggled to stay on her feet. She, for one, was definitely tired.

"I don't see why you're even trying," he continued as he edged along the wall. "You're in the middle of a mountain. With the way you are now, you'll just collapse halfway down. Besides, even if you did get down, someone else would kidnap you later on." Marinette narrowed her eyes at his words. "Wouldn't it be better to live in safety and luxury instead of always on the run?"

Marinette clenched her fists. "That's not the path I chose for myself. I have something I want to do, and it's not just sitting around in a manor because of my eyes."

"You'd be _safe,"_ he pressed. "In fact, you're lucky that I'm the first one who caught you."

"Don't try to make yourself seem like a saint," Marinette snapped. She swallowed and risked a look back at the tree. Her flint and rope was hanging there. She couldn't attack.

The man bared his teeth, shining in the firelight. "You don't get to choose your path sometimes!" He lurched towards Marinette with the torch. Marinette stumbled back and squeezed her eyes shut.

Her eyes flew open when Mister Akuma suddenly grunted. The torch was blown out, lying a few feet away and there was another person there who'd attacked, still in a fighting stance.

"Adrien!"

The boy expertly ducked down and drove the handle of his sword into Mister Akuma's stomach. The man in the long purple scarf choked, saliva escaping his mouth, as he flew backwards and hit a tree, his head snapping back and hitting the bark as well before lulling forward.

Adrien stilled for a second before suddenly leaping up and running towards Marinette.

"Marinette!" Adrien immediately crouched down and slipped an arm across her shoulders to support her. "Are you okay?"

Marinette breathed a little heavily, although relief was painted all over her face. "You… came. Thanks."

Adrien's eyes flitted up and noticed the rope and flint hanging off of the tree, as well as the ink smudged around her kidnapper's eyes. One corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile. "You really did a number on him, huh?"

Marinette laughed a little through the panting. "No… way. He hit my head… pretty hard too. Definitely… will bruise," she finished with a sigh, leaning against Adrien's shoulder.

"So her name is Marinette," the kidnapper rasped, and Adrien immediately bristled.

"Don't soil her name!" He snapped out from where he was crouching on the ground. Mister Akuma snorted.

"What are you- her father, or something?"

Adrien fought the urge to hit the man on his head this time. "Father?!" _Do I really look old enough to be her dad?!_

"There was nobody else," Marinette spoke out quietly, and Adrien intently listened, leaning his ear closer to her mouth. "He's the… only one."

Mister Akuma's fingers dug into the soil he was sitting on. "Rich, fancy kids like you… you won't know what happened until you're in rags like me. I used to live in this house…" He looked over to the building Marinette had escaped from. "It was pretty glorious. And now I live like a stray dog. I thought if I could use Miss Blue there, maybe I'd get some money…"

"Marinette isn't your tool," Adrien firmly said, and looked back down at her. She'd was riddled with exhaustion, dark smudges of it visible underneath her eyes. Something in his heart clenched.

Anger. At himself.

 _I thought that my country was something that I wanted to see all of, but I didn't want to see this._

"Since you're the only one, I'll report you to the officials at the bottom of this mountain instead of taking you to the castle," Adrien said, and the other man's face screwed up.

"Castle…? Who are you? What's your name?"

"Adrien."

The man blinked. "Adrien… as in…"

Adrien grunted as he stood up, supporting Marinette. "Up we go! You think you can walk on your own for just a little more, Marinette?"

Marinette nodded before wincing and gingerly rubbing the back of her head.

Strangely, after that, Mister Akuma didn't struggle. As Adrien and Marinette went with him to the bottom of the mountain, all he did was walk in silence, seemingly in deep thought about something. When they finally reached the port town along with two mountain officials hours later, where crowds of people were waiting (no thanks to a certain lady bringing bread and a boy stampeding through on his horse), Mister Akuma turned to Marinette.

"Hey, Blue. That path you said you wanted to go on. What was it?"

Marinette blinked in surprise but didn't get to answer, since two guards hauled the man away.

Adrien stood next to Marinette, overlooking the bay twinkling under the starry night sky and warm port town lights.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a day trip?"

He gave a start when Marinette suddenly leaned into him as they stood.

She was asleep.

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows as he glanced down at her peaceful form. _I kept thinking how I wanted to see my country, yet I wasn't prepared to see what I saw today. That doesn't make me a stellar Prince. But still…_

Marinette smiled in her sleep against his shoulder.

 _I must have done something right to be here with her now, right?_

 **Ok so, this was already a ways off from the real episode. I didn't think Marinette would just sit around and get knocked out, so I had her be hit on the head- which also later explained why she'd even let herself almost be knocked out by a random kidnapper dude, because again, no way would that happen if she was in perfect health. she'd kick some butt then**

 **I have some nice things planned for the future ;-) LEAVE REVIEWS Y'ALL! I LOVE THEM SOOOO MUCHH**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello Hello Hello!**

 **THANKS SO MUCH** **FOR REVIEWS I FEEL** **SO GIDDY WHEN I READ THEM /W/ AND I'VE GOTTEN SO MANY FOLLOWS AND FAVORITES, IT'S CRAZY**

 **Yall are too nice ( ´** **`)** **ノ～**

 **anyways, new installment. this one is eeevveeen differenter ( not a word ) I've some surprises I think you will like… well, it's just time to watch and see (ц** **ω´ц** ***)**

Marinette had a light skip in her step as she approached the castle gates, a paper clutched in her hand. It was the paper for the tailor apprenticeship test. She had mentioned it to Adrien before, but now she'd definitely confirm to him that she was going to apply.

And hopefully make it through.

Kim turned and saw Marinette and waved with a big grin. Max was less obvious about it but still offered her a smile.

"Hello," Marinette pleasantly greeted as she walked up to them.

"Yo!" Kim said, ignoring Max's mutterings about informalities. "You here to see Prince Adrien again?"

"Actually, no," Marinette said, eliciting surprised looks from the guards. "Well- sort of. I'm here to tell him about this test I'm applying for here, but I'm also going to tell Nino and Alya." She showed them the paper and Max "ahh"d.

"That is quite the difficult test, from what I've heard," Max said. "I don't know the proper details, nor would I expose them if I did, but each year more and more applicants get cut."

Instead of feeling discouraged, Marinette flipped the sheet back into her view and nearly glared at it in conviction. Kim shivered. "All the more reason I will pass this test!" Marinette firmly said. The two guards glanced at each other with knowing smirks.

"Well, I'll see you two later," Marinette said as she walked inside the castle. Kim and Max waved farewell with their staffs before looking back out again.

Marinette entered with intent to search for Adrien, but she didn't have to look for very long. She quickly found him sitting one of the sills of the large, windowless arches which were along many of the castle walls. He was casually overlooking the courtyard on the inside, which was just large expanses of grass with many trees and stone benches. His form was relaxed, one leg up on the sill while the other leg hung down.

"Adrien!" She exclaimed, running over. The boy jolted at her voice and looked over in her direction, a smile lighting up his features. She ran over the grass in the courtyard and stopped in front of where he was sitting.

"Marinette," he greeted. "You're here?"

Marinette handed him the sheet and quickly nodded, then regretted it as her head irritably sent out a dull ache. The ache was nowhere near as bad as it was a week ago when she'd first gotten hit, but she'd sort of been putting off a checkup because she felt like she'd be a bother. If she didn't nod too quickly or whip around, her head didn't hurt. It'd eventually get better on its own.

Adrien, though, immediately noticed her slight wince and narrowed his eyes at her, still holding the paper but having yet to read it. "Marinette… it's been a week. Don't tell me you didn't-?" He cut off, expectantly waiting. Marinette sweated under his scrutiny.

"Uhh… well… it's not like I don't know how to take care of myself," she hastily said. "Besides, a little bruise is no reason to go to the Head Chief- OW!" Marinette's hand flew up behind her head after Adrien gingerly brushed two of his fingers around her sore spot. "What was that for?"

Adrien offered her a deadpan stare and jumped off of the sill. " _That_ was to show you that you _do_ need to see the Chief Herbalist. Come on," he said, lightly grabbing her hand.

Marinette stayed rooted to the spot even as Adrien tried tugging her along. "It's fine, really! It's almost better." Adrien offered her the same, unimpressed, deadpan stare. "I'm serious! I don't want to bother the Chief Herbalist."

Adrien stared at her a few moments longer before letting go of her wrist. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled something out.

Marinette suddenly gasped, leaning forward to get a better look. "My bottle of dye! I thought I'd lost that for good in the mountain!" The girl suddenly narrowed her eyes and leaned back.

"…You're only going to give it to me if I go to the Chief Herbalist, aren't you?"

Adrien grinned. "Bingo!"

Marinette sighed and shook her head. "Fine, lead the way."

Adrien handed her the bottle of dye before walking off. Marinette put the dye into her bag before running to catch up with him.

Unbeknownst to her or Adrien, a figure from the other side of the courtyard watched her catch up to him with a distasteful frown evident on their face.

"She's only got blue eyes… that's all. No social status or standing whatsoever. She needs to be cut off before she tries taking advantage of the Prince."

There was a rustle up in the tree above. A young man sat on a branch. "You got it, Lordship."

A breeze, the fluttering of leaves in the air like spinning dandelion seeds, and the man was gone.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"So what exactly is this Chief Herbalist like? Any backstory?"

Adrien looked down at her as he walked, hands coming to rest behind his head. "Well, she came to the castle a few years back. She almost immediately took place of Chief Herbalist, since we'd been searching for one and her knowledge on medicine was almost ridiculous." A smile formed on his face. "Oh, and she's very sweet. Unlike Plagg."

"Plagg?"

"He's…sort of like my mentor for sparring, now. I grew up with him, he was actually my first personal guard. Eventually Nino came and Plagg took off," Adrien explained. "But now he trains our soldiers and hangs around our Chief Herbalist quite a bit."

The duo stopped walking as they finally reached the door to the medicinal office. Marinette began to open the wooden door, as it slowly creaked in the way all the wooden doors did back at Marinette's old shop.

"Wow… this Chief really reminds me of someone I used to know! What's her name?"

"Oh, it's-"

"TIKKI?!"

Adrien abruptly cut off with a jump as Marinette shouted just what he was going to say, her hand going still on the door handle. Her other arm was in a comical, flailing position, and her eyes were blown wide as they stood in the doorway.

The Chief Herbalist looked over from her desk as she was sipping tea towards the commotion and promptly spit her sip out, the spray of tea sparkling under sunlight which came in through one of the big windows on the wall. The two other herbalists in the room stared at their redheaded Chief in shock.

"Marinette?" Tikki said after a good ten seconds of insufferable silence, her big dark eyes slowly widening into saucers. "Is that you?!"

Marinette breathed out a laugh, and then began laughing all out as she stumbled in front of a very, _very_ confused Adrien and ran towards Tikki, who had also jumped up from her spinning chair, and nearly knocked over the older woman in a tight hug.

The other three people in the room had their jaws dropped to the floor.

"I am _so_ confused," Adrien said after a few moments, the ladies still hugging. One of the apprentice herbalists looked over at him as if noticing him for the first time and squawked, falling out of their chair.

"Pr-Prince _Adrien?!"_ They yelped, causing the other apprentice to almost crack their neck whipping around to look in the doorway. Their chair tilted back too far and they, too, fell with a loud crash, papers flying in the air.

Tikki and Marinette separated from the hug to see the two apprentices on the ground with papers strewn all about and a very lost looking Prince in the doorway.

"Oh, oops," Marinette sheepishly giggled, still feeling high from excitement. "I guess I shouldn't have done that…?"

"No, it's been too long!" Tikki said, smiling teary-eyed at her former student. Now Marinette was so much older, more matured, yet the childish wonder still remained in her eyes. Those same blue eyes. Tikki's smile grew wider. "Let's talk while I help you with that bruise on your head."

Marinette and Adrien both didn't have to question how Tikki knew of Marinette's head. She just did.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Instead of being shocked, or horrified, or scared, or all three like Adrien had expected, Tikki simply shook her head with a somber expression as Marinette retold her tale of the week before after her head had been examined and questioned about.

"There are people who will do those things to you," Tikki said. "Or at least try. I'm happy that you remembered my training. And thank you, Adrien, for being there for her."

Adrien rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "It was nothing…"

Tikki looked to the ground. "No, it's not nothing. People think they can do these things because Marinette is a girl, and has rare features. Apparently that makes her easy to capture." Tikki looked up through her lashes to Marinette with a sort of fire that the kind woman usually didn't show. "It's good you fought back. Actually, I have something for you. Wait here."

Marinette and Adrien shared a confused glance as Tikki got up and went to the back storage room, away from where they were sitting in her personal office. Her two apprentices were outside in the main part of the room, sitting together at a table underneath some warm hanging lights and doing their work.

Tikki came back out with two long, slim identical boxes and set them down on the table between her and Marinette.

Before Marinette could open them, though, the door to the quaint room opened with the same creak and in walked Alya and Nino.

"Ah, so I was right," Alya said as she came to stand in front of Adrien. "You _were_ here."

"Although," Nino said as he followed Alya, "it doesn't look like Adrien is here because he hurt himself again. I'll give you half the money I betted."

"Deal."

Adrien's eye twitched. "Were you two betting on my injuries?"

Alya's mouth quirked up in a smirk. "No, we were actually searching for you first because you have some extra work to clear up. But when it got a little difficult, we decided to bet on it."

Nino leaned down and whispered into Adrien's ear, "I betted that you'd be on a secret rendezvous with Marinette, _alone_." At the Prince's reddening face Nino burst out laughing.

Marinette blinked. "Huh? Are you okay Adrien?"

Tikki and Alya muffled their growing laughter when Adrien leapt up from his chair, face growing redder. "Y-Yeah! Don't worry about it. I'll just- have a _talk_ with Nino later."

"Talk to me while we go back to your office," Nino lightly said. He gestured for Adrien to come, but the Prince was hesitant, eyes locked on Marinette.

"But…" His eyes shifted to the boxes. Marinette smiled.

"I'll show you when I get the time, okay?"

Adrien's face relaxed into a smile and he rested a hand on Marinette's head before saluting. "See you later, Marinette."

Marinette watched them leave before suddenly seeing the paper Adrien forgot on the table and leaping up. She snatched it and ran up to the three of them about to exit the room.

"Wait!" The three of them curiously turned around. "Um, here. I wanted to show Adrien, but then one thing led to another…"

Nino took the paper and read it. "Wow! You're going to apply to be a tailor apprentice? I heard it's difficult!"

Alya nodded. "In this time and age, fashion trends keep changing… not to mention the castle tailors design clothing for the guards, too. That means it has to be breathable and easy to move in as well."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, I made sure to study lots. I'm going to take this test tomorrow, so wish me luck, alright?"

Adrien, Alya and Nino smiled. "You got it."

The three of them exited and Adrien gently closed the creaking door.

"So~…" Alya and Nino chorused as they walked back to Adrien's office, and the Prince suddenly stiffened up in his steps. "Nothing _interesting_ happen?" Alya teased, and began to laugh at Adrien's reddening face.

"Of course not," Nino said, and Adrien was about to thank him, until he continued, "The Chief Herbalist and her two apprentices were also in there." Adrien choked and Nino joined in on Alya's laughter.

"You two…" Adrien growled, but then blinked as he remembered. "If you want to talk about truly interesting… Marinette is on very close terms with our Chief Herbalist."

Nino and Alya's laughter abruptly stopped, steps slowing down. "Our Chief Herbalist?" Alya said, surprised.

"Sure, she's very kind, but they're on close terms already?" Nino said, equally as confused.

Adrien shook his head. "No, they go back a long way, much longer before the Chief Herbalist came to this castle. Marinette even calls her by Tikki."

"What a coincidence that they met here," Alya marveled. "Not to mention those boxes, too. What do you think is inside?"

Adrien shrugged. "Marinette said she would show me, so I'll just wait until that happens."

Nino nudged Adrien in the ribs, a sly grin on his face. "So something interesting _will_ happen!"

"Oh, shut up!"

The three of them continued their walk to Adrien's office. It was only a four minute walk, and the three of them had just settled back into their space, Adrien sighing and succumbing to his dreadful fate, when the doors opened again. Adrien looked up, in hopes of what he didn't know (the bigger part of him inside scoffed, _yes you know_ _ **who**_ _you were hoping for)_. However, his hopes weren't met.

In walked Lord Sancouer. Alya and Nino turned their heads the slightest bit to tune in to what would happen, but otherwise did not pause in what they were doing.

Adrien blinked, setting down his quill. "Good morning, Lord Sancouer," he said evenly. The woman bowed, one arm folded across her abdomen.

"Your Highness," she said in the same monotonous voice. "I have a matter to discuss with you."

Adrien waited a few more moments before saying, "Go ahead."

Natalie straightened up. "As you are very aware, you are a Prince of high title. You have the authority to do nearly anything and there are many people who would want to take advantage of that." Her blank eyes narrowed the slightest bit. "Including that blue-eyed girl."

Adrien cocked his head, bristling the slightest bit.

"Based on the way she looks, she has no social standing whatsoever," Natalie continued. "Your friendship with her will only prompt her to use you so she can advance forward. She will _use_ you, Highness, and I implore you stop her from taking more of these flamboyant visits."

Adrien leaned his cheek on his palm, pushing down the irritation tickling his throat. "And what makes you think she wouldn't advance on her own?"

Natalie scoffed- or, at least, her version of a scoff, which was just a sharp exhale out the nose. "Like I said before, Highness, she is a commoner with no social standing whatsoever who is friends with the Second Prince. It'd be ridiculous for someone like her to advance on their own."

"Everything you say is ridiculous as such," Adrien said calmly, still leaning his cheek on his hand. "You may leave."

This time it was Natalie who bristled. "Highness, you are making a mistake. If someone like that were ever to advance on their own, I'd very much like to meet them!"

Adrien stood up this time, the legs of his chair scraping against the ground. "Then next time, try to get to know Marinette before you target her like this!"

The two of them stood, staring each other off for what seemed like hours. Alya and Nino tensed, feeling the tension in the air thick enough to slice with a knife. Finally, Natalie Sancouer bowed her head.

"I hope you will know what to do before it is too late, Your Highness." She looked up again and swiftly turned on her heel, walking out the door. It shut with an echoing, resounding sound.

Nino exhaled loudly, slouching. "Geez! That had me sweating!"

Alya tsked, snapping the book in her hands shut and sliding it back onto a bookshelf. "I'm worried for Marinette. Lords like that are dangerous…"

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, still standing. He looked down to his hands on the desk, fingers scraping at the wood. If he was getting all riled up, he could only imagine what the hardworking Marinette would think.

But then again, somehow she always managed to surprise him.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

It was about an hour later that Marinette left Tikki's office, after a hearty conversation and a promise to come back soon. Marinette clutched the boxes to her chest and was nearing the gates.As she neared the entrance, she picked up the voices of Kim, Max, and another unfamiliar one. Then she heard her name.

"…decreed here, about Miss Marinette…"

Out of pure instinct, Marinette dashed forward and sidled up against a tree, hiding her out of sight from the redheaded man who was talking to the guards with a paper in his hand. His voice, previously shifting in and out of focus, could now be clearly heard from where she was standing.

"About Miss Marinette, Second Prince Adrien has signed an order forbidding her from entering the castle."

Marinette felt her heart drop. _What? That can't be right!_

The two guards talking to the unfamiliar man had a similar reaction. "What are you talking about?" Kim said incredulously, leaning forward to read the contract being held up. "Prince Adrien wouldn't do something like that to Marinette!"

"I agree, it would be unnatural," Max added. The redhead shrugged, rolling up the contract.

"It is what it says on the contract," he replied. "Could you tell Marinette the next time she comes around?"

"Uh, well, we already let her in," Kim said, and the redhead gave a start.

"What?!"

"It was a couple of hours ago," Max stated. "She comes around quite often, so…"

Marinette clenched the slim boxes in her hands and dashed off back towards the castle, intent on finding Adrien. _It can't be! While I was talking with Tikki for that hour… there's no way he'd suddenly write a contract to just keep me out._ Marinette's eyes darted to the boxes firm in her grasp as she ran. _Besides, he wanted to see what was inside these boxes. I still need to show him!_

The redhead at the gates jolted as he peered round Kim's broad shoulders and saw a figure quickly retreating into the castle.

"Did she hear me?" He muttered. He disregarded the two confused guards and dashed off in the opposite direction, seeking cover behind a tree before leaping off with practiced grace over the castle wall and into a watch tower.

The boy expertly crouched on the railing of the watch tower and pulled a looking glass out of his vest. He extended it before putting it to one squinting eye. He didn't have to search long before he saw a figure bobbing up and down as it ran through the halls, straight in a beeline towards where the Prince's office was.

Marinette was a fast runner.

The crouched boy hurriedly pulled out the message-bearing arrow and notched it in his small bow, all procured from his vest. Based on how fast Marinette was running without pause, he'd have to shoot the arrow farther than anticipated just to make sure the warning got in front of her face.

He pulled on the bow and observed the small figure in the distance with squinted, teal eyes before releasing on the arrow.

Marinette suddenly backtracked in her running with a gasp, coughing as she greedily took in air. A metallic shine and sudden whiz of something long hitting the wall made her pause in her running. Did she see that right?

She did. An arrow was firmly lodged in front of her, its tip buried in the wall. A long, green strip was tied to the end of the arrow.

Marinette hesitantly stepped forward, nearly disbelieving of what she was seeing. Nearly. After all, she'd seen some crazy odd things ever since she'd opened her eyes.

The girl lifted the green strip. There was something written on it in thick black ink.

 _Do not proceed further. You are banished from this castle henceforth._

Marinette narrowed her eyes. So somebody really did want to keep her away from Adrien, and it definitely wasn't the Prince himself. Whoever this was, was a very diligent person.

The figure took out his watching glass again and felt the hairs on the back of his neck rebelliously rise up. The girl was glaring out of the castle in his general direction. Now, it wasn't like she was making direct eye contact with him, but if looks could kill…

...those blue eyes of hers could very well freeze anyone to death.

His discomfort (and, try as he might deny it, awe) only rose when the girl effortlessly pulled out the arrow buried deep in the wall with one hand and continued running faster than before.

"This girl is crazy," he breathed before leaping along the towers in attempts to follow her. Well, he could at least tell the Lord that he tried. The girl took a sudden turn deeper into the castle and he staggered up on a roof, realizing he couldn't follow her without drawing the stationed guards' attention.

Marinette ran, the boxes held tight under one arm and the arrow clenched in her other hand. Her lungs were beginning to burn, her legs beginning to ache, her will beginning to waver, but she had to keep going. _I have to see Adrien. I have to see for myself that he didn't write that contract, and I need to find out who is behind this!_

Soon enough the girl spotted the double doors leading to the building his office was in. She ran through the doors and into the fancy foyer. Up the staircase and to the right were the doors to his office. He was in there, doing his extra paperwork.

Marinette pounded up the stairs, the muscles in her legs complaining after each step. She paused at the top to adjust her grip on her items and wipe her sweaty palms on her dress before running to her right and knocking on the doors. She tried to be polite, but her fist ended up shaking and her knuckles knocked against the door a few times more than she'd have liked.

Whoops.

There was the sound of hurrying from the other side of the door through rushed footsteps, no thanks to her knocking, and the door swung open. Alya stood in front of her, eyes widening at the sight of the disheveled girl with an arrow in her hand.

"Marinette?" Alya said, bewildered, already moving aside to let the girl in through the door. "What's- is something wrong? What's happening?"

Marinette entered through the door, whipping her head around in search of Adrien. He wasn't at his desk. "Where's Adrien?"

"He just went to the resting room down that door," Nino said, pointing to a door to the right of Adrien's desk. "Why-"

"Thanks, I'll explain later maybe seeyousoonthanksagainbye!" The girl rushed out as she took off towards the door. Nino faltered, finger still in the air pointing after the door which had just swung shut. He and Alya exchanged the most perplexed glances.

Marinette bursted through the door and Adrien, who was previously sitting on a sofa against the wall with many big windows, promptly fell out of his seat.

"Mar-Marinette?!" His eyes widened as he noticed the arrow in her fist. "What is _that_?!"

Marinette opened her mouth to speak and just coughed, lungs still struggling to intake more air. Adrien jumped up and guided Marinette to the couch, helping her to sit down and catch her breath.

"It's okay, breathe," he softly instructed. "Then tell me what happened."

Marinette's form heaved up and down as she took in deep breaths. After a minute, she began to speak again. "Someone- someone in this castle wants to keep me from coming. From seeing _you._ And they had this shot."

Marinette handed Adrien the arrow and his eyes went from left to right as they read the message painted on the strip of cloth. When he finished, he clenched the cloth in his fist, crumpling the end.

"I think I may know who this is," he lowly said, and Marinette gasped.

"Really? Are they in this castle?"

At Adrien's silence, she stood up. "I'm going to go and try to find them," she said firmly. "I want to see if I can talk to them myself!" She began to turn and head out the door

"Wait!" Adrien's hand darted out and found her own. Marinette's eyes widened in surprise and she turned her head to look at him as he gingerly held her hand. "Wait," he said again. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into."

Marinette looked down. "That may be true, but this is my mess. Don't worry about me."

Adrien still hadn't let go of her hand. A smile found its way onto his face and dropped just as quick. "Can't say that I won't." He furrowed his eyebrows in thought for a few moments before finally letting go of her hand. "…I… make enemies easily. So be careful, alright?"

Marinette smiled, feeling a little of the weight relieve itself from her chest. She picked up her boxes which she'd set on the sofa. "I will."

Marinette was off again, except this time she made sure to walk. To _breathe,_ like Adrien had told her. If she wanted to deal with this, she needed a clear head.

If she wanted to come into the castle, she had to know how to deal with these things.

But even so, it was as if luck were on her side. She hadn't been walking for long, having just reached the courtyard, when she was confronted by a woman. The woman was wearing stiff gray robes, something not usually seen among women who ordinarily wore dresses, and on top of that she had a sheathed sword by her side. She had impassive, calculative eyes donning thin spectacles unlike the thick ones that framed Alya's and Nino's warm faces, and her hair with a red streak was pulled into a tight bun. Her form itself was in a tight and regal position, standing much taller than Marinette.

Marinette didn't have to look for her. She came to Marinette.

"What is your business here in the castle?" Much like her eyes, her voice was cold and calculating. And straight to the point. Marinette shifted her eyes, tightening her grip on the boxes.

"I was invited here," she said evenly, finally meeting the older woman's eyes. Those eyes narrowed. Marinette's eyes skittered away again.

"Anyone who has enough power to invite commoners in here would not have invited you, as you have no business judging by your looks," she said in a smooth flow. "You have no place here. Leave."

Marinette focused on her breathing, heartbeat getting louder. Still, she stood.

"That may be true," Marinette said slowly. "But only at this moment in time. Someone… is against a few categories that I happen to be in."

Marinette gave a start but reminded her feet to stay rooted when the woman suddenly slid her sword out of its sheath. She pointed it at Marinette. Marinette could just faint- not at the sight of the sword, but at how damn _stressful_ the whole situation was. Tikki had taught her to fight, yes, but physical violence would get her nowhere. She needed to prove her stance, herself.

"I will use my sword if I have to," she said, no hints of bluffing in her voice. "Now, leave!"

Marinette narrowed her eyes as she grimaced at the metal of the woman's sword tip, glinting in the light.

 _While it's true that some people will try to get me because of my features, like Tikki said, there will be people on the other hand who want me to get away because of them._ Marinette clenched her free fist in conviction. _When that time comes, I will advance forward on my own. On my path, I won't rely on ohers heavily! And this…_

Marinette lifted her foot. It was difficult, sorely so, but as she leaned forward and gently stepped down, it got easier. The look on the woman's face changed into one of surprise. Pure, unadulterated surprise.

… _this is my first step in that path._

Another step. Another. The metal tip was gently touching her dress now.

The woman's hands trembled a little. "Do you think I will hesitate? I will use my sword if it is in Prince Adrien's best interests…!"

Marinette let her face relax completely and met the woman dead in the eyes, this time staying there. "Then use it."

She put another foot forward, ready to gamble it all with just a little lean and potentially skewer herself.

The metal tip pressed with a little more force against her, cool and hard through the dress she wore.

And abruptly, with a whoosh of air and the cutting sound ringing loudly, the woman had her sword sliding securely back into its sheath as Marinette leaned forward completely, stepping past the woman. Marinette was now facing in the other direction from the woman. She'd passed.

Marinette shakily exhaled in relief.

"I don't suppose you know anything about an order written about me?" Marinette asked quietly, and right then Adrien appeared around the corner, as if on cue.

A bit too much as if on cue.

"Prince Adrien!" The woman suddenly gasped, and a look of regret overcame her face before she bowed. "My apologies. It seems I was mistaken…"

Adrien stopped walking a few feet away from the two women and looked at the bowing woman with a small smile.

"Marinette has that way of surprising people. I don't completely blame you, Lord Sancouer."

Natalie looked up at the Prince with a look of astonishment on her usually emotionless face. He was looking at her with utter seriousness. "Natalie, do you value your place in my court?"

Natalie blinked. "Yes, Your Highness… very much so."

Adrien smiled again, this time wider. "Then value my decisions, as well. I can assure you that Marinette is going to go about her path herself. Although I'm sure you figured that out already." Adrien turned to Marinette, who raised an eyebrow albeit with a smile.

"Were you eavesdropping?" She said half-teasingly, but broke out in a grin when Adrien did too, no signs of denying it.

"I didn't want to stand idly by," he said, resting his hands on his hips. "And even while I was listening in- it took a whole lot of effort to not jump out and intervene, you know."

"Thank you for your valiant efforts, Adrien," she said sarcastically.

"You dare speak to His Highness like that, and address him by name no less?!"

Marinette squawked and barely kept her boxes from falling with how high she jumped at Natalie's scolding. Adrien rolled his eyes.

"She has permission, Lord Sancouer. It's fine."

There was clapping and all three of them turned. A figure leapt down from one of the trees in the courtyard and landed on the sill of one of the windowless arches smoothly in a crouch. Marinette's eyes widened as she recognized the red hair and dark, barely noticeably teal eyes. It was the boy from before who gave the order!

He smiled while clapping. "I knew a Miss like you wouldn't be scared off by a measly arrow!"

Adrien narrowed his eyes and walked forward until he was face to face with the new person. "Who are you?"

"Prince Adrien! Pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name's Nathaniel-"

Adrien leaned in and stared Nathaniel down. "Why should I trust you?"

Nathaniel put his hands up in a surrendering motion, an underlying sense of cheerfulness and humor still evident on his face. "Because I'm an honest guy?"

Adrien narrowed his eyes. "Alya and Nino, you wanna see how honest this guy is?"

Nathaniel gave a start and looked behind him to see the two guards casually standing there with matching smirks.

"Sure thing," Nino said.

"You'll have to come with us," Alya said, and Nathaniel put his arms behind his head.

"I'd go anywhere following a good romantic couple," he said, causing Nino to choke.

"You're dismissed," Adrien said, turning away from the scene Alya, Nino and the mysterious Nathaniel were putting up and instead looking to Nathalie. "As long as you can promise that this won't happen again."

Nathalie bowed again, her impassive face back, but less cold. "It won't, Your Highness."

Marinette and Adrien watched her walk off. Marinette shifted her eyes to the side and risked a glance at Adrien.

"… _I…make enemies easily."_

 _I'll walk by his side on the path we share together so that he won't have to worry about those._

Marinette smiled softly, the bickering of Alya and Nino and occasional laughter of Nathaniel fading in the distance. The breeze gently sifted through the air, drawing Adrien's hair away from his eyes as he looked on towards Natalie. She could see her favorite shade of green clearly now.

She could see her path in that green.

 **OK OK OK HOLD UP YALL I KNOW WHAT YOURE THINKING** _ **PLSSSSSSSS READDDDDD**_

 **((at least if you have seen the real show))**

 **NATHANIEL? AS OBI? R U FINALLY INSANE?**

 **Maybe. BUT, I did a bit of thinking, which is why this came out later. SORRY BOUT THAT. It was hard sorting the details out!**

 **firstly I wanted to add my own twist, so there was the whole tikki thing. we needed more of her! and I have more planned ahem ahem. AND THEN, I narrowed down Obi to 3 candidates.**

 **Nathaniel, Ali and Plagg.**

 **OFC, CHAT NOIR WAS THE BEST CHOICE. But likes hes Adrien. So sadly that went out.**

 **Then Plagg went out cus like, PLAGG has DE BOND W/ ADRIEN, Not so Much Marinette (although if they knew each other in canon they'd be BROS). I also have something in mind for HIM later ON cus hes BABOO**

 **Then Ali and Nathaniel. BOTH GUYS WHO I RLLY LIKE AND WANTED TO PUT INTO THE ROLE OF OBI. I CHOSE NATHANIEL SIMPLY CUS I WANT THAT GUY TO DEVELOP THE CLOSE FRIENDSHIP WITH MARI LIKE OBI HAS WITH SHIRAYUKI! While Ali and Marinette would make THE BEST BROTP, Nathaniel- I just- Idk. I had a premonition (JK)**

 **ANYWAYS WHAT IM SAYING IS, LOOK FORWARD TO MORE SURPRISES ETC.! IT WILL SHIFT AWAY FROM THE SHOW, BUT THAT'S CAUSE THIS IS MIRACULOUS AND I'M HAVING FUN AND SO ARE YOU HOPEFULLY BY READING THIS!**

 **PLEASE REVIEW! THIS WAS A LONGASS AUTHORS NOTE FOR MY ENDING CHAPS., USUALLY ITS LIKE HALF A SENTENCE anyways YES THANKSSORRYBYE**


	4. Chapter 4

**ARRGHHH**

 **Updates will be a** **lot** **slower due to school and cause, like, writing the chapters gets progressively harder for each one. LOL… BUT SORRYYYY :-:**

 **I'm doing some major change ups, but I hope you will like this story as much as I love writing it! ALL YALLS SUPPORT IS SO MIND-BLOWING. THANKS SO MUCH, MUCH LUV (can't do the heart emoji thing but you feel me?)**

 **Anyways… enjoy!**

 **BUT DON'T GO OFF ON ME WITH CHARACTER SELECTION! ITS HARD LMAO and I will explain reasons after the cut so read to see my thoughts!**

Caline watched in amusement as the darker-skinned boy hunched at his desk nearly touched noses with his work, that was how focused he was. It probably wasn't a good thing that he was sketching with his eyes so ridiculously close to the paper, but once he was in the zone it was hard to get him out. His forte did not lay in sketching, but he still had to do it- they had yet to find an apprentice in the past few years that could meet the criteria and keep up with it; and, well, be able to draw out the crazy ideas that Ali came up with. Hopefully this year's apprenticeship test would bring a promising person, someone who would be a good addition to the royal tailors.

"Ahem," Caline cleared her throat, and when Ali's pencil didn't stop moving and his rubber kept vigorously erasing at the paper, Caline tried again. " _Ahem!"_

Ali suddenly jerked up and blinked his umber eyes for a few moments before they landed on his amused mentor and chief tailor- Mme. Bustier. Ali sheepishly laughed.

"Sorry," he apologized, and then held up the parchment he was sketching on into the light. His face dropped into a grimace. "Yeeaah… sorry for more reasons than one."

Mme. Bustier shook her head. "No, it's fine. Hopefully this year will be the year."

Ali nodded vigorously. It was important to stay enthusiastic in such situations. "It'll be this year for sure!"

Mme. Bustier leaned back in her chair and opted for sipping on her tea instead of sighing, pretending that they hadn't said the same thing the past three years.

 _Meanwhile…_

"So the test is today," Adrien thoughtfully said as he peered up at the big scroll for the tailor apprenticeship test up on a wall. It involved information of when it was, where it was, along with the requirements- and a bunch of other artistic terms that he honestly didn't have a clue about.

Nino snorted from next to him. "Don't pretend like you're just finding out."

Alya nodded from her place to his right. "Yeah, you've been raving about it since weeks ago when she first _mentioned_ it, let alone yesterday when she confirmed she'd actually do it."

Adrien spluttered, face and ears suspiciously red. "Sh-shut up!"

His friends burst out into laughter and he just sighed, looking up at the scroll again. If she could make it in…

He hadn't ever really wanted something so badly up until now.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Marinette stood in a large group, full of restless and chattering people around her age as they waited for anybody to come outside of the castle and direct them. She wouldn't lie- the sheer amount of people there just for the tailoring test was alarming, but she couldn't lose hope now. She didn't know what, but Tikki told her that she had something in her that the other people didn't have. And it wasn't just her blue eyes.

She'd met up with Tikki early in the morning. They'd talked for a long time, just like they always did, sipping on tea, and Tikki had wished her good luck. Marinette really wanted to make it in now. She could be with Tikki and Adrien, maybe even make more friends within the castle…

 _And hopefully not as many enemies,_ she thought, remembering Lord Sancouer with a slight shiver.

After what seemed like hours, a woman came and stood in front of the large group. She was wearing a white coat with the sleeves rolled up, white pants and a teal blue shirt. Her ginger hair was tied into a low bun at the nape of her neck. And instead of a common brown color, her eyes were a flashing greenish teal color. Marinette realized that they were similar to Nathaniel's eyes.

"Welcome all," she said in a loud and authoritative voice that immediately quieted down the voices in the courtyard. "The tailoring test will commence in an hour. I will come here again and you all can follow me through to where there are individual testing quarters set up. The test will last twenty four hours." Her gaze raked over the crowd. Marinette stiffened when the woman's eyes landed straight onto hers for what seemed like forever. Her eyes moved on and Marinette sagged, sighing in relief.

"This test will be rigorous, I'm warning you now. Out of all of you, only three or four will make it in…probably. Anybody who wants to drop now can go and exit the gates right now."

A breeze blew as not a single person budged. The woman smiled. _Already better than last year._

"I'll come back in an hour. Take this time to prepare yourselves."

She left again and the chattering immediately ensued, faster and louder and perhaps a little more panicked than before. Marinette didn't know anybody around at all, so she awkwardly stood around, trying to find something to do.

As she was looking around her eyes caught sight of a large garden in the distance and she gasped. It had steps leading down the middle, little lights (which were off since it was daytime), and it was bursting with every color imaginable. Marinette weaved around people as she headed towards the garden, muttering hurried apologies as she repeatedly bumped into them. She just had to see that garden up close!

In her haste, Marinette didn't notice that two other girls seemed to have the exact same idea as she did, and the three of them painfully clashed just a few feet away from the stairs leading down the middle of the garden. Oh, so close yet so far.

Marinette groaned from her position on the ground. Her things from her bag were strewn about, as well as some other items which didn't belong to her, and she was confused for a split second before realizing what she'd done, eyes widening as she caught sight of the two girls also sitting on the ground and rubbing their heads.

Marinette lunged forward and tried to collect all of their things into a pile, apologies and amends flying out of her mouth faster than the speed of light.

Her apologies came to an abrupt halt when she heard laughing. One of the two girls, the smaller, blonde one, was giggling loudly. The other one was also laughing, but much, much quieter.

Marinette sweated. Were these girls sadistic? Even worse- did they have some big influence? What if they made her _stop_ taking the test? _Even worse-_ what if they got her arrested for assault?! How would she get into the castle now- wait, no, that was the least of her worries, she'd be locked away forever in a dungeon and Adrien and Alya and Nino and Tikki would be so disappointed and-

"It's okay," the blonde one said, and Marinette shot up into a sitting position, realizing that she was sulking dramatically with her palms to the floor.

"U-Uh," Marinette squeaked, completely and utterly mortified. Not only did she ram into the two girls like some sort of wild bull, she then let her imagination get the best of her and began to sulk! "Sorry about that," Marinette said, face still burning. "I-uh… was excited to see the garden…"

Man, did she sound stupid.

"Oh, no, we're sorry too!" The girl said again. Marinette gave a start as she saw how huge- _owlishly huge_ \- and blue the girl's eyes were. They were definitely darker than her own eyes by a certain degree, more like a chipped piece of sapphire, but they were still very unique.

"Actually, we were coming here to see the garden too," the other girl said, her voice much deeper than her friend's. In fact, they were opposites. One was tall, the other was short, one was decked out in pink and white, the other in dark purple and black. The taller girl even had a purple streak in her hair. Marinette could tell these two girls were very creative.

"Here, your things," the purple-haired girl said, and Marinette gave a start realizing that she'd collected her fallen items for her. Marinette gratefully accepted them and slid them back into her bag, handing them their items back too.

Marinette was about to ask for their names, in the least awkward way she could, but the girls seemed to read her mind.

"I'm Rose, and this is Juleka," the blonde one said, gesturing to herself and her friend. She held her hand out with a smile. "Nice to meet you…?"

"Marinette," the girl said, beyond relieved as she shook their hands. Somehow fate had sent two girls crashing in her path- or vice versa. Marinette hoped that she could be friends with them. "Thanks for, er, dealing with my crashing abilities."

The three of them shared a laugh and got up, brushing themselves off.

"Well, now that we're here, I really want to see the flowers!" Rose said, bubbling with excitement. "Oh, I especially want to see the pink roses!" Marinette hid a laugh, seeing how ironic it was- Rose, decked out in pink, wanted to see the pink roses.

"I'd like to see if they have Larkspur," Juleka said quietly as she walked off towards a dark blue clump. "That could give me some ideas."

Marinette gave a start as she realized that this was an opportune moment for her. Nature was an equally bountiful and beautiful resource. She could gain lots of ideas simply by looking at flowers, just like Juleka was.

Instead of seeking out specific flowers like the other two girls, Marinette decided to amble around and look for whatever struck her eye. She was halfway down the stairs, around the middle of the garden, when she saw a boy around her age crouched in front of some flowers, holding a sketchpad. He had skin a touch darker than Alya's and wore a grey coat with a black shirt underneath that had gold embroidery on it. Marinette could probably stare at the embroidery on there all day. Only an advanced tailor could make such a thing, something that was so intricate and beautiful yet so bold and insistent in its color and form.

Marinette's eyes then shifted to the paper he was holding. It seemed he was trying to sketch the tulips, but his lines were hard and jagged and didn't flow well. Subconsciously, Marinette murmured, "If the lines were rounder around the left side and the petals looked more like they were wrapping around a center, it'd look more realistic…" Marinette suddenly yelped as the boy looked up at her.

"D-Did I say that out loud?! Sorry!" Marinette squeaked. How many times was she going to royally mess up and fear for her life in one day?!

But, as things usually went for her, the boy just looked down to his drawing with a laugh. "Now that you mention it, my tulip does look more like a sword."

Marinette snorted and immediately slapped a hand over her mouth. The boy on the ground simply laughed again. He seemed to be very cheerful.

"It's okay, I won't sue you. Are you an artist?"

Marinette slowly lowered her hand and nodded, clenching the strap to her bag slung across her chest. "Yeah. I'm going to take the tailoring test here soon, so…"

The boy jumped up. "Really?! I hope you do well, then! We've especially been needing an artist for a long time now because, well-" He rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle, holding up his paper for emphasis. "That's not where my talents lie."

Marinette gaped. "You're part of the royal tailoring group?" The boy nodded and Marinette's jaw dropped further. "So- wait- did you embroider your own shirt?"

He looked down to his shirt. "Oh, this? Yes, it was one of my first projects- uh… are you okay?"

Marinette looked like she was going to cry.

"Oh, yes," she said, voice wobbling. "It's just so… well done… and pretty. You're so _good!_ " Marinette looked up to the sky. "If this is the level I need to be at, it's going to be a lot harder than I thought…"

"Oh, no!" Marinette gave a start. The boy was vigorously shaking his head. "No, I can confidently say you're going to do fine! I'm not _that_ good at embroidering; it took a very long time just to make this shirt." He smiled and extended a hand. "My name's Ali. You?"

She shook his hand, also smiling. "Marinette."

"Okay, Marinette, good luck!" Ali said. "I hope you make it in this year."

"Oh, there are some other nice girls you should be rooting on, too! I just met them today but they're so kind." Marinette said. She scouted out Rose and Juleka in the garden and pointed in their direction. "The tall one with a purple streak in her hair is Juleka. Rose is the blonde one. They're really creative people!"

Marinette lowered her hand and looked over to see Ali's mouth slightly open in a gape. She followed his gaze and saw Rose, happily squealing and jumping as she talked to Juleka about the roses and other pink flowers that the garden had. Marinette slyly smirked and playfully nudged Ali in the ribs.

"So I'm assuming you're going to be rooting for them too?" Marinette teased, and laughed when Ali turned his head away.

"Marinette!"

Her laughing paused as she looked up and saw Alya, Adrien and Nino at the top of the stairs, waving down to her.

"You're friends with Prince Adrien?" Ali asked, astonished.

"He's a friendly guy," Marinette retaliated with a smile. "I'll hopefully see you soon again?"

"Yeah," Ali nodded. "Do your best!"

Marinette waved goodbye to him and ran up the stairs to where her three friends were waiting.

"I see you're making fast friends with everyone you bump into," Alya said, laughing behind a hand. Marinette pouted.

"How do you even know I bumped into them…?"

"Just a hunch."

Adrien walked forwards and stood in front of Marinette. "Are you ready for your test?"

Marinette giggled and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Maybe…?"

Adrien raised an eyebrow. " _Maybe?_ What's that supposed to me _-eeaan?"_

His words were cut off and he was left making an unintelligible noise with pinkish cheeks as Marinette suddenly grabbed one of his hands. She glared down at it with the same, unmistakable (and slightly frightening) determination and held it for a few more seconds before letting go and clenching her fist to her chest.

"Wh-what was that all about?" Adrien sputtered, cursing himself for stuttering.

Marinette slowly uncurled her fingers. "Nothing. I'll see you after the test!" Marinette paused for a moment then added as an afterthought, "Hopefully with good news."

She then ran past the utterly confused Prince and his two assistants who were cracking up.

As Marinette ran towards the meeting grounds, she held up her right hand in front of her face- the same one she'd just used to hold Adrien's hand.

 _Just by being here for a day, I met three amazing people,_ Marinette thought. _I can't imagine how things would change if I began to work and live here. I want to make it in!_

Marinette neared the group of examinees and spotted Juleka and Rose. They saw her at the same time and waved her over, more excited than panicked- unlike many of the other pupils there. The ginger woman came out again and the crowd surged forward to follow her as she led them through the halls of the castle. Somehow, miraculously, Marinette managed to stay on her feet and walked alongside Rose and Juleka, chatting somewhat nervously. There were lots of wooden doors down the halls where groups of people in sixes and sevens were dropped off on the ginger woman's command. Soon enough the crowd dwindled away to a small group, and then it was just Marinette, Rose, Juleka, and three other people walking behind the woman. Her heels clicked down the hall as they neared the last door.

She stopped in front of the door and turned around to face the last of the students. "Behind this door, there will be seven sub-units. They're separated by walls, so don't worry. There's a small atrium inside each one which has a couple of plants for you to examine and take note of as much as possible. There's also several articles of clothing that need basic levels of patchwork. Take note of that as much as you can, too. And there's also a section for you to sketch out a design, whose requirements will be in an envelope." The woman checked the things off mentally, nodding. "And good luck to you. There will be lots of unexpected surprises, so watch out." She smiled at the group and they all smiled back, some shakily, before entering through the wooden door.

What was beyond the door was amazing. Marinette could only wonder how much space was needed in the castle for every single student which applied for the tailoring test. There was a long hall, running lengthwise in front of the group who'd just entered the door, and the doors to each subunit, each containing one large, easily see-through window, was opened. She could see a vast space behind each door, including the glass atrium bursting with hues the woman had mentioned as well as a large area, rug underfoot, with mannequins and cloths and another desk in the corner ladled with charcoals and parchments for sketching. It was almost too much to take in. Almost.

While Marinette could keep in her gasp, Rose certainly couldn't, and she excitedly turned to Marinette. The girl could only wonder how the blonde managed to stay so bubbly all the time.

"Marinette, good luck!" Rose squealed. "Wow, this is amazing, isn't it Juleka?"

"Yes," Juleka nodded. "See you tomorrow."

"That sounds so weird when you say it like that," Rose said, her voice fading as she walked into her room. Juleka walked in to her room not long after, as well as the three other students, until only Marinette was left in the hall standing in front of her empty room.

She took a deep breath and clenched her bag strap with her right hand before marching in.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Adrien sighed, setting his quill down and cracking the knuckles on his right hand. He'd accomplished a lot of work, more than usual, and as a result from all the nonstop writing his hand was beginning to cramp.

It was fairly late into the night. Alya and Nino had gone off an hour earlier to sleep and Adrien had stayed in his office to finish his paperwork (for once). The boy cracked his neck and sighed in relief, shuffling together all of his papers.

"Now I'll have almost nothing to do tomorrow. Doing things ahead of time feels sort of nice," he mulled as he stood up from his chair. His desk was at the back of his office, at the end of a large red rug; the two walls to his sides were completely covered with two bookshelves filled to the brim, and to his back- parallel to the wall with the door- was a wall made completely of glass. He turned to look through it and saw multiple buildings completely lit up, illuminating the darkness around them. Those were the buildings being used for the tailoring tests. Out in the distance, more to the west, there were multiple greenhouses that were also lit up, being used for the court herbalist tests.

Adrien recalled that Marinette had gone in for her exam around noon, and it was nearing midnight now. She was probably up all day and didn't intend on sleeping at all, from how determined she could get sometimes. A small smile made way onto Adrien's face subconsciously.

Adrien exited his office and made his way down the stairs, intent on finding Marinette so he could remind her of her basic human needs. And, well, if she was already doing fine, then he'd just say he would drop by to say hi. He actually just wanted an excuse to see her.

Adrien inhaled and exhaled the cool night air once he was outside. The sky was lit up with millions and millions of twinkling stars, making the night much brighter than it could have been. In the Agreste lands, the night view was very crisp and clear. Painters made great money by illustrating the beautiful nights that the Agreste lands were famously frequented with.

Adrien entered the long hall containing rooms for the test takers. He peeked through the large windows on the doors of each subunit, trying not to be seen by the students inside their testing units; although it wasn't a very hard task. Most of them were sleeping, and those who weren't looked much too tired to notice a prince wandering around like a cat at night.

Then he was at the last door. There were seven doors with large windows. Adrien quietly tiptoed past, not wanting to disturb any of the test takers. Through the first door, he could see a boy snoozing at his desk, like many of the other students. The next three doors showed him the same thing, though two of them were girls. The next door surprised him. A blonde girl was excitedly jumping around her mannequin and sewing something very pink and very frilly. Either she had taken a nice long nap before or she just had a lot of caffeine.

Adrien covered his mouth to hide a laugh and moved on. Much like the surprise before, this girl was completely awake, although she wasn't excitedly jumping around like the one before. She seemed like an exact opposite of the blonde one: she was tall, darkly dressed, and calm. The drawing she held up to the light confirmed that, showing lots of dark colors and jagged lines. Adrien tried to get a closer look, intrigued, but she put it back down on the table and began stroking her colors across it again. Adrien sighed and began to move forward, then froze.

This door had to be Marinette's. He'd seen every other room and none of them had Marinette in them, so this one had to be it. He suddenly sweated.

 _What the heck! What are you feeling nervous for, Agreste?! You're a Prince for heaven's sake, not some naïve young person in lov -_

Adrien's eyes widened just as a loud scuffling noise was heard. Immediately the boy whipped around and pressed his back to the door, his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword. There was nobody there. Still warily looking around, he felt around behind himself with his left hand and grasped around, finding the door handle and twisting it open.

He was still scanning the hall outside of her room from inside when a gasp made him jump up and spin around. " _Adrien?"_

Marinette stood there in an apron with smudges of color all over, papers strewn across her table and different pieces of cloth draped up on a mannequin. There was a glowing light lit up over the atrium, bathing the plants in a soft yellow glow. Bags of dirt and empty pots were everywhere.

"Uhh… hi?" Now that he could see her standing right there, all plausible excuses fled his mind and he was left standing there gaping like an idiot.

"Adrien, what are you doing here?" Marinette asked, starting forward. He tensed up again as the scuffling noise returned, this time louder and clearer and _closer_.

"Marinette, wait!" He lunged forward to try and protect her in case whatever- more likely, _whoever-_ it was outside was dangerous.

The door snapped shut and something knocked against the handle.

Adrien was frozen in front of an equally surprised Marinette for a few more seconds before he twisted around again at an impossible speed and rattled the door handle to no avail. Something was securely stuck underneath it on the outside, and it wasn't budging.

"Oh no," he groaned. "We've been locked in… do you know anyone who'd do this?"

Marinette shook her head no. She seemed only mildly concerned, if at all. "No, not at all, but… why _are_ you here? You never answered my question."

Again Adrien was faced with the most impossible, embarrassing task. _Dang it! I thought she'd forget!_

"I was… you know… in the neighborhood…?" Adrien said, more of a question, and then groaned and slumped down, his back to the door. "Okay, I feel like an idiot."

Marinette simply laughed, sounding a little tired, and slid down next to him. "It's okay. We all have those moments. Me… a little too many times."

They both shared a small laugh, until Adrien's smile morphed into a frown. "But what if the advisors come in the morning and think I'm helping you cheat?"

Marinette shrugged. "I'll deal with it when the time comes." Her mouth cracked open in a long yawn and Adrien raised an eyebrow.

"Have you slept at all these past-" He paused to count on his fingers. It was midnight right now, so… "-nine hours?"

When Marinette didn't say anything and suddenly found the edge of her dress very interesting, his brow somehow raised even higher. "Do you plan on taking a nap? Like at all?"

Her fingers found a loose thread and pulled.

"Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed. "You're going to drop in a dead feint."

"No, I'm not," Marinette stubbornly retorted, getting up with a spurt of energy. "Besides, how could I think of sleeping when I'm in a room like this? Look at all these plants! The quality of the charcoal, and the parchment, and the cloths!" It looked like Marinette was swooning for a second. "It's like heaven!"

Adrien found himself staring at Marinette's face a few moments longer than he'd have liked and he coughed, slapping his own pinkish cheeks and getting up.

"So, how much have you done so far?" He asked curiously. Marinette's eyes raked over the room.

"Well, so far I've been sketching… they've got very specific requirements for the clothing they want designed, but at the same time they want us to have an original flair. I also finished pinning it up on the mannequin, and I still need to look at the plants to make some dyes with, since they're testing on that too." She frowned. "The chief tailor warned us about there being catches. I haven't run across anything yet, so I'm a little worried…"

"Maybe the warning _was_ one ofthe catches," Adrien pointed out. "So she would make you worry and waste some of your time... or something?" He suddenly turned self-conscious under Marinette's intense blue-eyed scrutiny. "I… don't know?"

"Again with that amazing way of thinking!" She said with a smile. Adrien blinked and turned away to hide his (even more) red cheeks.

"Well, I need to go examine the plants… huh?"

Marinette rushed forward and opened the glass door to the atrium, kneeling down. She was cradling a bloom in her hand. Adrien got up and followed her, peering over her shoulder.

"What is it?"

Marinette's eyebrows were furrowed in thought. "The flower is lighter than before. But why?" She got up again and ran over to the desk littered with papers. She sifted through the pile and came out with a notebook, snapping it open and flipping through some pages. "The last time I checked the flowers, it was around six o'clock…" Marinette looked back towards the atrium and gasped, seeming to realize something. Adrien followed her with his eyes- or at least tried to. She was moving around so quickly, and he could only imagine what kind of sprint anyone would be in for if they tried to keep up with her thought process. He could almost see the gears turning and _damn_ if they weren't turning fast.

"Got a diagnosis, doctor?" He joked. Marinette flipped a few more pages and muttered to herself, then spoke out loud.

"I labeled all of these plants as good for dyes. Around four o'clock, the sun was still high in the sky and the light was coming in through the atrium, and these flowers were vibrant in color." She came back inside and squatted down next to Adrien, cradling the light pink bloom in her hand once more. "Sunlight has effects on the soil. Some soil has minerals in it that will store vitamins from the sun and use it for later and some soil doesn't." Marinette nodded quickly, her faces smoothing out into confidence. "This soil doesn't store the vitamins, so the plants have a less vitamin-rich base and they're losing color."

Adrien blinked, registering all of her words. "So what you're saying is that the soil needs to be changed, and the flowers will regain their color?"

Marinette nodded, looking back at the bags of soil and empty pots strews about around the atrium. "This soil has been sitting in the sun all day. I know it's one of the vitamin rich minerals because there are these little white specks in it," she explained as she knelt down and scooped up a handful to show him. "So we need to move all of the flowers into the pots, replace the soil, replant them… and _then_ I need to remove some petals to extract the dye," Marinette listed off. While any ordinary person would have sighed in defeat, or perhaps fatigue, Marinette looked determined as she rolled up her sleeves. Excited, even.

She looked up at Adrien. He was looking at her.

No, he wasn't just looking at her. It was different. It was… making her insides feel like there were screaming and exploding all at once.

 _Nope, have no idea,_ she adamantly thought as she whipped her head back to the bag of soil and plunged her forearms in thoughtlessly.

"So… you gonna help?" Her voice didn't crack. No. Nope. Not at all. _Why did I put my arms in the dirt?_

"Um, won't there be repercussions?" Adrien asked, even though he was rolling up his sleeves anyways.

"You're here, they're going to suspect anyways, so might as well," Marinette shrugged. Or, well, tried to shrug. That was hard to do when your arms up till your elbows were downed in dirt. "Besides, my main priority is making this dye. I'll make the most of this as a learning experience."

"Very optimistic," Adrien said with amusement. "So do you want me to take the plants out now and put them in the empty pots?"

Marinette nodded, not trusting herself to speak. _Why am I just sitting here with my arms in the dirt though?_

The next two hours saw Marinette and Adrien unloading all of the plants and the soil from the atrium, replacing it, and replanting the flowers. In the process dirt got smudged all over their arms, clothes, and faces (perhaps because at one point they had some immature banter and starting slinging the soil at one another…perhaps).

Adrien finally plopped down on the ground with a long sigh after the two gruesome hours of hard labor, hair extremely mussed up, skin smudged with dirt, and muscles aching. "How do gardeners do this? A fencing session seems like nothing compared to this," he said with newfound appreciation for the people who worked outdoors.

"You can sleep if you'd like," Marinette replied as she examined the plants and filled up page upon page in her notebook with her loopy writing. She had lots to document after what she'd discovered. Frankly, she was proud that she noticed such a thing and replanted the flowers instead of just using more petals to get the same color as a shortcut.

"Aren't you tired?" Adrien asked, concerned. A loud yawn punctuated his words and his eye twitched in annoyance when several locks of hair fell in his eyes.

"Not at all," Marinette cheerfully said. Adrien could see right through it. "I just need to get some reports done and make the dyes, and I've a couple hours left. I'm making pretty great head- _waaay…_ "

The end of her sentence was skewed as a soft snore filled the room. Marinette twisted around in her chair to see Adrien comfortably leaning against the atrium's glass wall and snoozing away. Subconsciously a soft smile made its way on her face. She turned down the intensity of her lamplight to just a soft glow that threw shadows around the room so Adrien could sleep easier, and resumed her work.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Mme. Bustier handed Ali two more journals to add to the growing pile in his bag.

"Have you read through any of them? See anything good?" Mme. Bustier asked. They had just the last three doors to go for the whole batch. Once the sun had risen they'd set out and started collecting journals, analyzing each student. Unfortunately, while most of the people did do better than last year's batch, it was still not enough to meet the criteria.

"None of them have noticed, well, _the thing_ yet," Ali said, voicing his mentor's thoughts with a sigh. The woman sighed in turn.

"Well, we have three doors left here, we may have some promising reports here."

Ali suddenly perked, looking up from the journal he was reading. "Wait! I think I know who is still left. I was sketching in the gardens yesterday and ran into a girl called Marinette. She seemed really good at tailoring! And she also pointed me out to two girls, Rose and Juleka. We haven't seen any of them yet!"

Mme. Bustier turned around with an apprehending look, which was slowly crumbling away due to her own hopefulness. She knew it was foolish, but she was also desperate. "You know very well that they have to get through on their own strengths, right?"

"I know," Ali said, sounding very much like it didn't make a difference to him. Mme. Bustier turned around again with a shake of her head and a tiny smile as they approached the third-to-last door.

Mme. Bustier knocked before opening the door. Ali followed her in, and they both paused and blinked at the sight they were met with.

Pink. Lots of it. The papers, the flowers, the dyes, the clothing on the mannequin, a pink cloth stretched across the table, pink cushions on the chair- it was hard to spot anything which _wasn't_ containing at least a little bit of the shade.

And there was also a bobbing blonde head of an energetic, short girl dressed in pink bounding forward and presenting her journal, which she'd also _sewn_ a pink cover onto- wait, were those stamps? How did she even make stamps?

"Hello!" She said enthusiastically. "My name is Rose and I'm pretty sure you're going around collecting these because why wouldn't you so here?!"

Mme. Bustier slowly accepted the journal. "Rose… have you rested at all?"

The girl grinned wider, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Not at all!"

"Ah, yes, that's what I thought," the older woman said as she handed off the notebook to Ali. Ali opened it and his face immediately brightened.

"Chief! Take a look!"

Rose watched on excitedly as the woman looked over to her journal and her eyes widened fractionally in what was obviously impressment at her designs. And then she inhaled.

"Are these scented pages?" She said, astonished. Rose beamed wider, nodded faster.

"Yup!" She popped the 'p'. "It's rose scented." She giggled madly. "See what I did there? Rose? Pink? Me? Conspiracy?"

"Okay, let's just lay down here," Mme. Bustier gently said as she took the pink cushions off of the chair's seat and laid it on the ground. She guided the blonde to lay down and was surprised to find that she fell into a deep sleep the second her head hit the pillow.

"Wow," Mme. Bustier said, unable to process most of everything she'd just seen.

"Wow," Ali echoed for a completely different reason.

Mme. Bustier blinked and shook her head, turning to head out of the room. Ali followed her, holding onto Rose's journal instead of stowing it away with the rest.

The girl behind the next door was, almost comically, a stark contrast to the previously seen Rose. She was calmly sitting crisscross in the middle of the floor… meditating?

Mme. Bustier exchanged a look with Ali before bringing her knuckles up again and knocking on the open door. The girl meditating on the floor calmly opened her amber eyes as if expecting them and gracefully got up, retrieving her notebook from her desk and handing it to the chief without a word. Much like Rose, a cover had been sewn on, except this one was dark purple and had lots of intricate patterns inked into it instead of bright glittery stamps.

"This is beautiful," Ali said, impressed, as he turned the book every which way to look at the swirling black patterns. The girl closed her eyes and hummed.

"Totally rad, isn't it? I call it Crowman's Sorrow." At the confused glances of the other two, she offered, "It's a symbol."

Mme. Bustier cleared her throat. "Well, nonetheless, it's beautiful. Good job," she said, looking back at the girl to smile at her.

She was meditating again.

Mme. Bustier rubbed her temples and exited the room with Ali behind her, trying to stifle his laughter to no avail.

"They say creative people are the oddest, right?" He said jokingly as they moved on to the last and final door. Mme. Bustier shook her head.

"At least their oddities are evened out by their artistic abili- _what in the world…?"_

Under the handle of the very last door there was a piece of wood firmly wedged underneath, making it impossible for any entrance or exit unless it was removed.

"…I don't even want to begin to think about this one," Mme. Bustier deadpanned. Ali took on a more worried expression. Wasn't this Marinette's door? Had someone tried sabotaging her? Although it'd make no sense to lock her in when she wasn't going to go outside so… why?

It was a bit difficult getting the board out of the way so they could turn the handle, but with their combined strength the piece of wood was clattering as it fell to the ground. The sound seemed to alert someone from inside the subunit because suddenly lots of crashing and yelping could be heard.

Mme. Bustier opened the door with extreme caution as if entering a warzone, Ali following behind in similar fashion. What the two of them saw inside the room caused them both to backtrack and just stand there and _gape_.

First there was a hyper sleep-deprived girl, her room exploding with as much pink as there was visible talent. Then there was the meditating mystery, with her symbols and purple hair. But this one just took the cake.

Not any extremely, crazily notable thing about the student themselves like the other two girls, but the fact that _Prince Adrien_ was sitting there against the atrium looking completely exhausted with dirt smudged all over him and his hair going in every which direction. Just like the student herself, they noted, scrambling up from the ground with crumpled papers all around her feet. But still. The Prince.

The girl got up and swayed for a few moments before snatching her journal off of the worktable and dashing forward- almost tripping- to hand it to the woman. Mme. Bustier stared at it openmouthed.

"Am I finally going mad… or… is that Prince Adrien?" She asked unintelligibly, her pointer finger hovering in the air. The student's blue eyes widened and she whipped around, as if forgetting that he was there, and then turned back to the chief tailor and Ali, and then back again, and then she made a squawking noise.

"I can explain," she offered, not making any move to explain. It was silent for another long stretch of time when Mme. Bustier finally registered the smudged dirt everywhere and soil in the empty pots. A seedling of hope unraveled within her.

"What happened back there?" She asked, gesturing to the atrium and clearing her voice when the words came out too hopeful.

Marinette's hands found their way to the edge of her dress, the cloth twisting around her knuckles and her journal. "Um… that is to say…" She sheepishly laughed. "I noticed that the flower petals were lighter at night, so I switched the soil with the vitamin rich one and…" She bowed her head. "Well, Adri- er, _Prince_ Adrien got locked in here and he helped me," she said with a guilty undertone. But then she looked up again, any signs of guilt diminishing. "But- I wanted to make the most of this as a learning experience, and there'd be no way I would've finished replanting all the flowers in time to extract the dye by myself, so…" She held her chin up. "I have no regrets!"

Crap.

 _WhyWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY-?!_

 _WHY WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT YOU IDIOT?! YOU ARE SO DEAD! YOU'RE EXILED FROM THE COUNTRY! WHAT KIND OF ALIEN POSSESSED YOU TO BE LIKE THAT-!_

A bead of sweat rolled down Marinette's temple.

And then the woman started laughing and Marinette totally imploded.

"I-I am sorry, so sorry, I DON'T KNOW WHAT JUST, AH, I'M YELLING, what I mean to say is Ididn'tmeantobesodisrespectfuldon'texileme!" She word-vomited, her hands going in every which direction. A boy behind Mme. Bustier had to duck to save his life and Marinette suddenly gasped, recognizing him from the day before.

"Ali?!"

"Ah, you finally noticed me," Ali joked. "Marinette, you're the only person to notice what was up with the flowers!"

Marinette gaped. "What- really?!"

"Yes," the woman said, suddenly causing Marinette to jump in the air. "Granted, some kids decided to extract the dye first, so they didn't get a chance. But it was very impressive for you to note that. You didn't have to replant all of the flowers, though," she said, humorously raising an eyebrow and peering round Marinette's frame to look at the fatigued Prince still in a heap on the ground. "You and him."

Marinette's cheeks reddened, making her freckles and smudges of dirt more prominent. "Ma'am-I-uh-that's-"

"Take a day to rest," the woman interrupted again. "Meet me in the courtyard tomorrow at five so that we can sort out the details. Rose and Juleka will be there too." She smiled. "You can call me Chief Bustier."

Marinette was standing there for a few moments, just staring dazedly at them, and then the words registered and she shrieked in joy, her hands flying to her mouth before she lunged forward and tightly hugged Ali.

"I did it!" She whisper-shouted, then shouted all out, "I DID IT!"

Ali laughed as he released her. "I can't wait to be working with you and Rose and Juleka!"

Marinette laughed and grinned and twirled around like a fool before dropping to her knees in front of Adrien and unapologetically shaking him by the shoulders like a madman.

"ADRIEN!" She poked and patted his cheeks. "Adrien, Adrien, Adrien, Adrien, AAADDRRRII-"

He groaned and cracked his eyes open from the intense shaking, sunlight from the atrium reflecting in his emerald greens. His first sight was a totally disheveled and fatigued Marinette beaming at him, her hands on his shoulders.

"I got in."

Unlike Marinette, who was dazed for a few seconds, his eyes were immediately blown wide open and he leapt up, bringing Marinette with him. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly, until finally he managed a, "You WHAT?!"

"I made it!"

A breathy exhale of a laugh escaped him, and then he was laughing all out and hugging Marinette and twirling her around. Neither of them noticed that Ali and Mme. Bustier had left already with matching smiles on their faces.

"We sure got lucky this year," Ali cheerfully said as they walked down the hall back to their main office. Now that they'd finally found not one, not two, but _three_ apprentices, they had lots of reports to make and files and documents to sign. However, the work just seemed to welcome them instead of daunt them. "Someone who specializes in scenting… another girl in inking… and Marinette is something else altogether, isn't she?" He chuckled along with Mme. Bustier.

"The future looks promising."

 **REEEAAAD PLLSSS but im not forcing u but PLSSSSS**

 **For those of u who have seen the show, no I didn't add the whole part where Marinette would like read? a journal of adrien's injuries and then start crying? Not only is that totally OOC, it would make the chapter too lengthy, and I also have no idea why marinette as a tailor would get her hands on a medical record.**

 **NOW., FOR CHARACTER SELECTION. Yeah. I used Ali. Fight Me.**

 **I wanted to use Rose and Juleka because I want to incorporate all the other classmates into this story, not just a romance-centric thing, also they're tailors since they designed that hat in the Mr. Pigeon episode. and since there was Rose and I was freaking out about who to cast as Ryu, I just thought, Oh. Ali.**

 **THAT KID IS CREATIVE. HE HAS CREATIVE BONE(S). Tell me he doesn't.**

 **Next episode/ chapter, prepare for a reeeaaalll change up. Things are starting to get much more different with each chapter! Im excited! Are YOU?!**

 **SORRY FOR THE WAIT, HOPEFULLY NEXT TIME IT WILL COME FASTER. I still need to brainstorm and think it out, but review ideas and it might come faster! Along with my infinitely great gratitude… heheh**

 **ENOUGH TALKING~ SEE Y'ALL LATER!**


	5. Chapter 5

**duuuuuuuuudes… this took so SO long….. im sorry! I went from major change ups t changeups to** _ **is this good or not *proceeds to rewrite everything***_ **. Hope you all don't mind, for those of you who've seen the show! To be fair I did sort of… put a disclaimer… maybe? it was all long ago! T-T SORRRYYY! BUT I HAVENT ABANDONED THIS BABY JUST YET!**

 **I rewatched episode 5 like 6 times… ha ha ..**

 **ALSo I gave up on making up names for lands. none of them sounded cool enough so Laxdo it is LOL**

 **-!-SPOILER ALERT! NOT BIG BY ANY DEGREE, BUT IN CASE YOU REALLY WANT TO STAY AWAY FROM THEM. I just inserted one of the new kwamis as a character, thats all. -!-**

Marinette breathed in the crisp air through her nose as the horse trotted along. She, along with Rose, Juleka, Alya, Nino and Adrien were heading towards Laxdo, a separate land that the Agrestes owned. The three tailoring apprentices would be dropped off there for out-of-castle training, except they would have to walk halfway since apparently the Prince and the two guards were in a hurry.

"It sure is cold out here," Marinette remarked. "It's very different from the Agreste lands."

"Yes, that's true," Alya agreed from in front of her. Marinette was riding with Alya, Rose with Nino and Juleka with Adrien. They'd been going northeast at a fairly fast pace for the past forty minutes, and the sunshine that seemed to surround the Agreste lands was slowly diminishing as they got closer and closer to Laxdo. "Laxdo is a far cry from the sunny Agreste lands."

"You three have to head out all the way to Laxdo already, that's a bit rough," Nino said from where he was on his horse alongside Alya's. "Didn't you just get into training a week ago?"

"Yup," Rose answered, popping the 'p'. "It's all about being a tailor. There's no use in making the same colors over and over again! Ooh, I can't wait to see what kinds of pink we can find here!" She jostled excitedly and ignored Nino's yelp of being careful, much to the amusement of the other four.

"Since Laxdo is colder, there are different plants that grow here," Juleka quietly mused. "And so the people here also use different techniques. We're bringing that back to the castle for our first assignment along with full reports."

Alya whistled. "Tough."

Marinette frowned slightly and leaned over a little to look at Adrien. Usually he was talkative, but he'd been quiet most of the horse ride. "Adrien?"

The boy in question jolted before looking back to her. "Huh?"

Marinette cocked her head. "Umm… everything alright? You've been pretty quiet."

Adrien blinked at her for a few moments before a small smile made its way onto his face. "I'm admittedly a little worried, but it's no big deal." At Marinette's confused expression, he added on, "We usually get reports from Fort Laxdo every month on a set date, but it's been three weeks since the due date already and nothing has come. So now we're checking up on them ourselves."

"Sorry we couldn't drop you off all the way," Nino said a bit regretfully. "We need to get to the fort as soon as we can."

"No, it's all good!" Marinette quickly replied. "Walking a little bit won't hurt. I hope everyone at the fort is okay."

There were hums of agreement and a few minutes later, a little wooden sign with scrawling letters spelling out 'Laxdo' could be seen stuck in the dirt. The horses were signaled to stop and the three apprentices jumped off, Rose requiring a little bit of help. Marinette pulled her red and black spotted hood over her head and turned to look back at Alya, Nino and Adrien.

"Thanks for dropping us off," she said, and Juleka and Rose said the same sentiments.

"No problem. Be careful here, okay?" Adrien replied. Marinette smiled and nodded in turn.

The three of them watched Alya, Nino and Adrien gallop off on their horses in the other direction until they were little dots in the dust. Marinette turned back to face the other two girls.

"Well, shall we?" She asked with a smile, and the two of them grinned in turn before setting off on the path in front of them.

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"There's nobody on watch," Alya murmured as they viewed the fort in front of them. There was snow, thick layers of it, over every flat surface of the large stone building and nobody was in the either of the two watchtowers… like they should have been. That was an immediate red flag.

"HELLO?" Nino shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify his voice. "WE'RE HERE FROM THE ROYAL GUARDS! ANYONE IN THERE?"

One of the wooden shutters suddenly trembled. Snow slid off of it as it was lifted ever so slightly and someone from behind it called out in a shaky voice, "Stay there, I'm coming down!"

The shutter closed again and Adrien, Alya and Nino could only exchange bewildered glances before the front gates were opening. Out ran a young looking person, totally decked out in blue and looking close to tears.

And then they tripped and fell face-first into the snow.

Adrien and his two guards jolted before running forward and crouching next to the person, whose head immediately lifted from the snow.

"T-The royal guard?" She swiveled her head from side to side and her eyes widened when they landed on Adrien. "The Prince came, too?"

"We weren't getting any reports," Adrien said, his eyebrows furrowed a bit. The person in the snow opened their mouth to speak, but were cut off by a call from above.

"Prince!"

The four of them looked up to see a figure dressed in striped garments leap down from one of the fort's walls. He landed safely in the snow and shook red hair away from his eye. "Nearly everyone inside the fort is sleeping."

Adrien's frown deepened. "Sleeping?"

"Who are you?"

Nathaniel blinked and noticed the person next to Adrien for the first time, who'd asked the question. He grinned and pointed to himself, "I'm Prince Adrien's bestest friend!"

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Hardly." Nino sighed in relief.

"Ouch."

Adrien got up and brushed some snow off. "I'm going inside-"

"NO!" The young girl on the ground cried out. Literally. Tears were somehow springing out of her eyes and they were… glittery? "Don't! This fort is possessed by an evil spirit!"

Adrien paused in the doorway and sported a confused expression similar to Nathaniel. "Evil spirit?"

The girl looked to the ground solemnly and twisted her dark blue gloves around. The glittery tears were gone as fast as they'd come. "Three weeks ago, everyone one after the other began saying how their bodies felt weak, or how their vision was drained. Some people even said how they didn't have any balance." Her lower lip wobbled. "We called a doctor over, but even he got sick! So it has to be an evil spirit."

They'd all moved inside and Alya, Nino, Adrien and Nathaniel were viewing the indoor sight with shock written on their faces. No square foot of the wooden floor was left unoccupied. Every single soldier and worker in the fort was on a mat. The ones feeling better were slumped against the walls, drooping and clutching their heads. The ones worse for the wear were closer to the fire with cloths over their foreheads. Sickness was thick in the air, and nobody knew what kind, why, or how.

Nino turned away from the sight to the girl decked out in blue. "Were you keeping watch this whole time?"

She looked down at the ground. "Yes. I was feeling better out of anyone else, so I had to."

Adrien narrowed his eyes and began to exit the room. "I'm going to investigate."

The girl immediately stepped in front of the doorway leading to other corridors and rooms. She looked exhausted, but she stood almost desperately with her arms out. "No! Like I said, there's an evil spirit! You're going to get sick and the Prince definitely can't get sick-"

"I'll be fine," Adrien interrupted. He placed a hand on her head and smiled reassuringly. "You've done enough for now. Let us take over."

The same oddly glittery tears welled up in her eyes and she sniffed, giving in to Adrien's request- and her own exhaustion. "Yes, sir. My name's Duusu, call for me if you need any help."

He nodded with a smile. "Okay, Duusu. Go and get some sleep."

When Duusu finally trudged off, the four from the castle wasted no time in scouring the rest of the place for the next hour. They went through multiple corridors, rooms, closets, even the food stock- nothing came up. It all looked normal, if not a little dusty for the lack of cleaning for the past three weeks. They were at a dead end and all they had left to check was the weapon storage.

"Weapon storage," Nathaniel said unimpressedly as they came to a halt in front of their very last- and unconvincing- lead. "Why would the weapons storage chang- …oh."

He'd swung the doors open and trailed off when he saw what was inside, completely contradicting his prior words. The other three came to stand next to him with similar expressions.

The only weapons left were the old and rusty ones. Deep scour marks were gorged into the walls, the wooden floor, some even on the low roof of the small closet-like area.

"Someone took the sickness as a chance to rob the place," Alya mused as she leaned against the stone wall. They'd moved out onto a watchtower for fresh air. Adrien and Nino stood with their arms crossed, deep in thought, as Nathaniel crouched right on top of the wall Alya leaned against as he overlooked the forest. "But don't you think it's too coincidental?"

"The fact that there were robbers around right as everyone got sick," Adrien said gravely, "can only mean that they must have a hideout right here in Laxdo."

"For all we know the robbers could have been the reason the soldiers got sick, like poisoned them or something," Nino pointed out. "But then again, the soldiers would've noticed if it was upfront, and if it wasn't upfront then they couldn't have gotten sick and…" Nino trailed off then groaned. "Mysteries aren't my specialty."

The other two men rolled their eyes at Nino's expense, but Alya suddenly jumped off from the wall. "Specialities!" The other three blankly stared at her and she elaborated, "Tikki is the best medical herbalist we know! Not only would she be able to cure all these soldiers, I bet she'd be able to find out how they got sick, too!"

Alya donned a satisfactory grin as Adrien, Nino and Nathaniel's faces brightened up with realization.

"Should I go get her?" Nino asked Adrien quickly even though he knew what the answer would be. Adrien nodded and Nino was out the door, onto his horse and decking it towards the castle within a minute.

Adrien, Alya and Nathaniel watched him go for a minute and then turned to each other.

"In the meantime, we have some bandits to hunt down."

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

Tikki paused to roll her sleeves up for a second before resuming her work. She was busy grinding large amounts of herbs into a powder with her mortar and pestle. Right now she had already made four large batches of the powder which her apprentices were processing and diluting with water, but she still needed to make two more batches and then file in more reports…

…not to mention deal with an annoying cat on her hands.

"Don't you know what taking a break means?"

Without pausing her work or looking back, Tikki seamlessly quipped back, "Don't you know what finishing your work on time means?"

Plagg sighed loudly and dramatically. The apprentices always loved it when he came over, but today was a day with heavy workload and Plagg had moved away from the working apprentices to bug her like usual.

"The soldiers got tired so _fast_. And they demanded a half hour break, Tikki, half an hour!" Tikki giggled at his dramatics. "I have nothing to do."

"So you come to bug me," Tkki said dryly. "I don't understand how you can be so lazy yet tire your soldiers out every time you train them."

"Camembert cheese," Plagg said proudly. "It's the secret to life. It's much better than the sweet stuff you like so much for some reason."

Tikki finally halted her continuous grinding against the stone for the first time in two hours and realized how cramped up her hand was. She silently made a note for later to bandage it up with some ointment to relieve the muscles. Tikki turned around and made to address the black-haired, green eyed man lounging on her couch- most likely poke at his love for the smelly cheese- when her door suddenly slammed open and she jumped nearly three feet into the air.

Plagg had also leapt up and was in an offensive stance until he saw who it was. "Nino?" Plagg relaxed. "What the hell."

The royal guard looked slightly disheveled, and he was slightly winded, his hat slightly askew, but other than that there wasn't much about his appearance that suggested he was tired. However, his voice sounded very urgent when he blurted, "Tikki, you have to come!"

Tikki's jaw dropped. " _What?_ "

Nino hastily explained, "All the soldiers at Fort Laxdo are sick. We don't know how, and the doctors they called over didn't know how to fix it and they also got sick. We realized that you would be able to fix it in time because, well, you're _Tikki,"_ he finished. Tikki looked back at her mortar and pestle with the fifth batch of herbs which were half-grinded worriedly. She didn't even finish that, she needed to make one more batch, _and_ write and file the reports _and_ check up on her apprentices' work, and then in her recreational time she'd wanted to write a letter to Marinette to see how she was doing…

Tikki's eyes widened. Marinette!

"I can't go," Tikki said, and when Nino opened his mouth to protest she quickly added, "But you can get Marinette to do it."

Nino's face fell into one of shock and confusion. " _Marinette?!_ But she's a tailor-"

"And my apprentice ever since she was a little girl," Tikki interrupted, smiling smugly to herself when she saw how Nino looked even more shocked than before. He looked just about ready to fall to the ground. She'd wanted to see how people would react to that little fact for a while. "I've taught her nearly everything I know, including medicine. She may be a bit rusty, but she will definitely be able to do it, I'm confident."

"B-But… she's off doing a lot of her own work in Laxdo…"

Tikki smiled wider. "Trust me, she'll want to help. That's just how she is. You should hurry if you want to fetch her before sundown."

Nino stuck his head out the door to look at the sky and let out a startled sort of squawk before running back outside. Suddenly though he backtracked with a skid and rushed out a "Thanks Tikki!" before taking off again.

Tikki went back to her mortar and pestle grinding and that was the only noise in the room for a few minutes, the sound of the stone pestle crushing herbs underneath it, until Plagg said, "Marinette, huh?"

Tikki hummed. "She's grown a lot since she was a little girl."

"Yeah. Too bad she doesn't remember Adrien or I from way back then."

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"There are no pink ones," Rose said, uncharacteristically somber. Juleka patted her back. All of the flowers and plants that they were collecting for three hours were strewn out on the table in their main working space. Since they came from the castle there were already living accommodations made for their two day stay in Laxdo. After arriving around early noon, they'd found many different kinds of plants and brought them back to their room two hours before sunset.

Marinette stifled a little laugh and instead attempted to cheer Rose up. She held up a stem with white sweet alyssum flowers and twirled it. "Look, even though it's not pink it has such a sweet scent-" Marinette took a deep breath of the flowers and sighed in content. "You could make one of your famous perfumes with this, Rose!"

The cheering up worked. Rose tentatively picked up one of the stems and sniffed its blooms, a smile blossoming on her face much like a flower straight after. "You're right, this one does have a strong and sweet aroma!" Rose deeply inhaled again before saying, "I'll make files on this one too. How many types do we have?"

Juleka pointed to each different flower on the table and counted. "One… three… eight, nine…" She hummed. "We have fifteen."

"Oh geez, that's a whole lot," Marinette said. She stretched and took a look at the sky out the window. "But two days should be more than enough time to-"

Sudden, harsh knocking cut her words off and she jumped. There was someone on the other side of the room to their door, tapping their knuckles faster and louder by second. Rose and Juleka worriedly looked at each other.

Marinette cautiously approached the door, shoulders tense. _Okay Marinette! Worst comes to worst, you're going to knock out the person on the other side of the door. No big deal! But don't knock yourself out in the process._

Marinette softly gripped the door handle and looked back at Rose and Juleka. They just shrugged and the knocking got even louder than before. Marinette took a deep breath before suddenly swinging the door open, so fast that the curtains on the window of the room fluttered.

Nino stumbled from the other side of the doorway.

" _Nino?!"_ Marinette blurted. Rose and Juleka made similarly surprised noises. "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be at Fort Laxdo?"

Nino straightened up. He looked a little tired, like he'd been travelling back and forth. "You should be there too," he said, and before Marinette could even ask what the heck _that_ meant, he explained as if anticipating it. "Everyone there is sick, we don't know why or how, but it's suspicious. I went to go get Tikki, and she told me to come get you because apparently she taught you stuff," he said. "So, yeah. That's that."

Marinette blinked. Then she looked back at all the plants strewn across the table, and Rose, and Juleka.

"Wait, but, my work-"

"That's fine!" Rose said cheerfully. "We can cover you. Besides, that situation sounds more important."

Juleka nodded and mumbled something Marinette couldn't hear in agreement. The pigtailed girl furrowed her eyebrows.

"I can't let you guys do all that work…" Marinette put her hand to her chin in thought. "I'll bring it with me and do it while I help the soldiers." She turned to Nino. "Is that okay?"

The boy shrugged. "Goes by me. I don't see why not." He suddenly turned around and pulled things wrapped in cloth out of his bag. "Oh, also Tikki told me to give these to you."

Marinette took the items from him and lifted the cloth. Medicinal herbs. She nodded to Nino gratefully before quickly placing it in her bag along with lots of paper, quills, ink, and five of the flowers carefully wrapped in a cloth. She rechecked everything and said her goodbyes to Rose and Juleka, who were smiling and wishing her luck instead of being irritated at her departure. Man, did she get lucky with her coworkers! She couldn't imagine what life would be like if she was stuck with some snobs.

Marinette and Nino rushed outside into the cold and he quickly mounted his horse, helping her up. Once she was settled they were off.

"We're not far," Nino said loudly over the rushing wind. "It's only about ten, fifteen minutes from here to Fort Laxdo. Though I can't say Adrien will be expecting you."

Marinette nodded even though Nino couldn't see, squinting through her bangs that kept getting blown into her eyes.

True to his word, they arrived in front of a large stone fort about fifteen minutes later. Nino pulled on his horse's reigns and the animal slowed down, nickering. They both dismounted the horse and Marinette followed Nino inside at a brisk pace. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw how the main room was filled to its capacity with sick men.

"That's not the worst of it," Nino said when he noticed her expression. "The armory's been robbed, too. Adrien thinks that bandits have a hideout here in Laxdo." He led her through twisting corridors and hallways and soon they were climbing the winding stairs up a watchtower. "Adrien!" He shouted up to where there was the light of the sun setting casting on the stone. Marinette could see two pairs of booted feet.

Nino was in front of her, so he got up first. "Nino," she heard Adrien say, "that sure took a while, did you come back with- _MARINETTE?!"_

Marinette climbed up the last step and covered her mouth to hide a laugh at Adrien's utterly gob smacked expression. He looked from her to Nino back and forth with his mouth opening and closing like a fish the whole time. Unlike herself, Alya and Nathaniel had no qualms about bursting into open laughter.

"Hello," she said, and Adrien looked just about ready to fall to the ground.

"Nino, I'm pretty sure Alya said Tikki," Adrien warily said.

"She did," Nino agreed. "But Tikki had too much work, and she told me to get Marinette because she knows how to do these types of things."

Adrien's jaw dropped and he barely refrained from asking Marinette _is there anything you can't do?_ If he'd said that out loud he would never hear the end of it from his friends, let alone forget it himself out of sheer embarrassment… _ugh_ thinking about it was making his face red.

He suddenly realized where they were, who just came and how dangerous it was. "Wait, no, you'll get sick Marinette! You can't go in; we don't know how dangerous it is…"

"But you're here," Marinette pointed out. "You've been here since morning, and you're the Prince. Isn't part of being a Prince making sure you're healthy?"

Adrien spluttered, "I-it's my- it's under my jurisdiction so-"

"I'm staying," Marinette said firmly. "In fact, I think you should go outside for some fresh air."

Adrien could only stare at Marinette for a few seconds, finding no words within himself. He was about to protest when Alya said, "She's right, you know. You've been in here all day." Adrien whirled to Alya with a look of surprise on his face. Usually Nino was the one to advise him. Alya knew her words had more weight when needed. "Head outside for a bit and then you can come back in."

Adrien weighed his options before sighing in resignation. As he began down the stairs, he stopped next to Marinette, searching her face before finally deciding on, "Be safe." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "You'll be able to do this. I know it."

She nodded gratefully and he headed down the stairs and back outside with Nino. Even though he didn't want to admit it, he was already feeling a little bit better from the fresh air. Marinette was right about him needing a breather, but- maybe he was immature sometimes and just didn't like being wrong.

Still, though… if Marinette got dragged from her own work into his situation and got sick because of him, he'd never forgive himself.

"She'll be fine," Nino suddenly said and Adrien would have jumped had he not been laying down in the snow. He was looking up at the sky; it was quickly darkening, the winter days short. The lights from the fireplaces in the fort were glowing yellow and bleeding into the snow he was on, and twinkling stars were beginning to come out in the sky as he could faintly see. "Marinette knows what she's doing, she won't get sick," Nino continued, completely reading Adrien's mind.

"Yeah, well-"

"Prince!" Suddenly Nathaniel was there, jumping off of a tree and landing on the snow a few feet away from Adrien and Nino in a crouch with a thud, several flakes of snow flying. Adrien shifted his head on the ground and gave him a deadpan stare, absolutely unsurprised.

"You really need to stop doing that."

"I looked over the east side of the area surrounding the fort," Nathaniel said, ignoring what Adrien had said. "There was nothing."

"Nino, Alya and I covered the west side and south side earlier," Adrien said and he suddenly sat up, snow melting in his hair and causing his locks to dampen and stick to his forehead and neck. "That means they've got to be in the north!" Adrien pulled out a map from his inner pocket and unfolded it, running his finger over several markings. "They're going to be right here in this little area," he said, pointing to a spot on the map.

"Let's go now," Nathaniel said with a grin. "I love bandit hunting!"

"I'm getting Alya," was all Nino said before dashing back inside the fort to fetch their fourth musketeer. Adrien stood up completely and brushed snow off of his back. He rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.

 _Time to give these bandits what they deserve._

…

Alya watched Marinette as she applied ointment to one of Duusu's minor scrapes.

"It's important to take care of every little thing in case it gets infected," Marinette explained as she wrapped a bandage around to secure it. "Especially when everyone's sick like this."

"Thanks," Duusu said, looking a little guilty. "If you need any help I'm right here. I don't want to make you do everything…"

Duusu looked up in surprise when she heard Marinette laughing. "It's fine," Marinette said after her laughing had died down, "I can handle it from here if you're too tired."

Duusu's mouth almost dropped open in shock at how similar Marinette's words were to Prince Adrien's. From behind Marinette's back Alya was standing there and she was mouthing, _they're a thing_ and making heart shapes with her hands. A giggle escaped Duusu and Marinette smiled a little before realizing and whipping her head around, pinning Alya with an accusatory glare.

"What were you doing?"

"Who, me?" Alya innocently pointed to herself. "Oh, nothing, just-"

"Alya!" Alya was saved from having to explain herself when Nino rounded the corner with a smug sort of grin on his face. "We've pinned the bandits down. Let's go now!"

Alya nodded, doing a poor job to hide her excitement and relief: relief because now she wouldn't have to face the wrath that was Marinette, and excitement because now she could avenge all of the sick soldiers and take out bandits at the same time. It was a win-win situation!

Right before they left, Nino turned back to Marinette and said, "Thanks for everything, Marinette. Without you here we'd all definitely be doomed."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Flattery won't work on me. Hurry outside already!"

Nino and Alya left with laughs echoing in the hall and for the first time in weeks a smile was stuck on Duusu's face.

"Alright," Marinette said to herself as she got up. She pulled the medicinal herbs out of her bag. There were quite a few there. "Time to make some soup."

"Soup?" Duusu asked confusedly as she got up.

"Yup," Marinette turned to the other girl with a smile, "all these soldiers need a good dinner. Besides, I don't think it'd be as easy to stomach bitter medicine."

Duusu shuddered. "Oh, thank goodness. I hate medicine."

They both shared a laugh before heading inside the kitchen. A lot of work was to be done… not to mention Marinette also had her own reports on the flowers to do.

Who needed sleep anyways?

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

"There," Adrien whispered to them, pointing in the distance. His eyes picked it out before any of the others' did: faint flickers of light dancing against a stone cave in the snow in the dark. "We found them."

Instead of coming on horses, they'd walked. It would be a quieter approach to the bandits- it also wasn't even that long of a walk. Since the other parts of Laxdo had already been examined, they had pinpointed the location of the bandits and turned out to be correct.

The four of them crept closer and then raucous laughter could be heard, the clanking of mugs and sloshing of alcohol, the crackling of a fire and scraping of metal blades against each other. The group of four crouched behind a peak of snow and peaked over. A large group of about twenty to twenty five men were circled around a big fire, shadows stretching across the rocky walls of the cave and their faces.

"Can't believe they fell for such a trick," one was barking with laughter as he took another swig from his mug. "We should stop by again and see if they got any food left too!"

"Sorry, but none of that food is for you." The men all looked up to see a blond person standing there. His face was shadowed, because his hair was falling into his eyes and he was looking down. There were three equally mysterious people flanking his sides.

One man with a bottle of alcohol in his hand angrily got up. "Wha'zzat for you to say, huh?!"

The blond gripped his sword and finally looked up. His eyes were green, cold, and fury was swimming in them. "We're here from the royal guard," Adrien continued in an equally as cold voice, "you've been up to some illegal activity so you're going to have to come with us now."

The men wasted no time in exploding with roaring laughter. "Did'ja hear?!" A bearded man crowed. "Royal guards?! _These_ guys? What a joke!"

Another one spotted Alya and his laughter got even louder. "They brought a woman! Thanks for the gift, you idio-"

Adrien whipped his sword out from its sheath and pointed at the men. It made a loud noise as it cut through the cold night air. Much like his eyes, the sword was swirling with the firelight. "Enough. You've already done enough to my soldiers, you won't speak ill anymore!"

The rowdy laughter died down and instead boiled to irritation and rage. The same man with the bottle from before hurled it at Adrien's head and the prince effortlessly shattered the bottle midair with his sword.

All at once the rest of the men lurched forward and charged with loud snarls, swinging swords and knives alike. Adrien immediately jumped into the fray and began fighting, driving the handle of his sword into one man's gut right as he elbowed the jaw of another in one smooth movement. Alya and Nino fought back to back, Alya having a little too much fun with beating up the particular man who called her a "gift".

Nathaniel leapt up and into the fighting group almost eagerly. He placed his foot on the hand of a man who was about to pull his sword out behind Adrien and once the bandit looked at him he kicked his jaw, grin growing wider when the man's head snapped back and he fell to the snow covered ground.

The fighting felt like it hardly lasted five minutes; even though Alya, Nino, Adrien and Nathaniel were highly outnumbered, they smoothly moved through the bandits like they were simply picking the thorns off of a rose. However, by the time they were finished and had tied every man up, the sky was beginning to lighten. It had taken a good couple of hours to track them down on foot, fight them, tie them up, and reclaim the things they stole from Fort Laxdo. And it'd probably take a couple more to bring them all back to the castle... especially on foot.

"Geez," Adrien breathed, a little puff of air showing in the frigid air. "I'm sort of wishing I'd ignored my pride and come on a horse, now."

Nino snorted. "Yeah, these men were full enough of themselves that they'd have fought us anyways."

"Well I guess it's good that I'm here," Alya airily said as she examined her nails. "I asked some soldiers to follow us for a little and leave some horses tied to trees."

"Wait, really?!" Nino and Adrien asked simultaneously. Alya simply smirked and Nino went forward and excitedly hugged her. "Thank the Lord for Al!"

"Let me breathe!"

"Aww," Nathaniel cooed, and immediately a multitude of things were being thrown at him.

Adrien shook his head with a smile at the three and looked up to the sky that was lightening into a clear blue slowly but surely. Blue. How was Marinette doing?

"…he must be thinking about Marinette," a voice suddenly shifted into focus and he yelped a little as he realized he'd zoned out. His three friends were snickering. "See, that's the face of someone caught red handed!"

"Oh, shut up!"

MLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLBMLB

 _a few hours earlier…_

"And that should do it," Marinette said as she stirred the soup inside the pot with a ladle. "Here, you wanna try some? It's hot."

She held up a ladle full of steaming soup and Duusu blew air on it before delicately taking a sip. Her eyes widened. "There's no way this is medicine."

Marinette laughed and covered up the pot. "Miracles exist, Duusu!"

As she was cleaning up the counters, Duusu seemed hesitant to ask her something. Marinette noticed this but instead said nothing as she found more things to clean up, patiently waiting for Duusu to speak on her own.

"…Marinette," Duusu finally said, and Marinette paused in her cleaning and leaned against one of the counters in expectation. "Um… I have a question…"

Marinette nodded encouragingly and Duusu leaned on a separate counter, looking worried. "Will Prince Adrien continue to visit us?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "He usually came all the time and we looked forward to it. He would listen to the stories from the elders, play games with younger people like me and sometimes even train the soldiers… and he actually enjoyed it too. But now that we've disgraced him I'm worried he'll stop coming…"

Duusu looked up when a comforting hand was placed on her shoulder. Marinette was smiling at her knowingly. "There's nothing to worry about. You aren't a disgrace for being robbed, that's all on the bandits. And knowing Adrien, he'll only visit you more."

Duusu looked at Marinette hopefully and the blue-eyed girl was looking at her so insistently and genuinely that she couldn't help but believe her.

"Before I give this medicine to the soldiers, I'm going to try and find the source," Marinette said as she got off the counter. Duusu nodded and followed her back into the main room where all the men were, none better for the wear than before.

Marinette pulled out her clipboard and flipped through the pages with a frown. She situated herself right next to the fireplace to warm up. "All of these results are so random… and varying. Does it go from person to person?" She quietly mused to herself. "No, this patient has fluctuated too much…" Marinette took a deep breath and exhaled and suddenly her heart lurched as she felt dizzy. Her knees wobbled before they buckled completely and she fell to the ground.

"Marinette!" Duusu shouted, hurrying next to her.

"Why is it coming on so fast?" Marinette hissed. Her eyesight was going blurry. She held her hand in front of her face and her fingers shifted in and out of focus. "That doesn't make sense, the men in the back are sitting up…" Her eyes suddenly widened. "The men in the back?"

Marinette suddenly brought her clipboard up and squinted to look at the numbers and letters through watering eyes. "The men in the back are faring better…" Marinette murmured, looking up and letting her gaze sweep over the room. The mats closest to the fire were situated about a yard away and those men were laying down with cloths over their foreheads, the most sick. She was right next to the fire and…

"Duusu, cover your mouth and nose!" Marinette ordered. She immediately stood up and would have fallen right back down on her shaking legs had Duusu not been there. Duusu quickly led Marinette away from the fire, and even though a wave of cold hit Marinette due to not being next to it anymore she was already starting to feel better.

Duusu's hand was over the bottom half of her face. "Did you figure it out?"

Marinette simply nodded, taking deep breaths of the air away from the fire. Each one let the ache in her head fade away to a dull throb. Finally, after two minutes, she asked, "Where did you get the wood from?"

Duusu looked confused, but replied anyways. "We got the wood from a group of travelers passing by." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait- are you saying-?"

Marinette nodded. "Adrien was right. There _are_ bandits in Laxdo, and they gave you toxic wood to sicken you and then robbed you."

Duusu clenched her fists. "So it's in the wood?"

"Yes. Let's go and get rid of it right now. The soldiers should be better by tomorrow if they regularly take medicine and are away from the toxic smoke."

"Okay!"

…

Marinette yawned, rubbing her eyes. A look at the sky told her that dawn was near, but she just about ready to drop in a deep sleep.

 _No, you can't,_ she chastised herself in her mind. Her tailoring reports were due by midnight- if she held it off then she'd be behind schedule- and she still needed to make two more batches of the medicine, and check up on all the soldiers. She couldn't waste a single minute.

Marinette wrote down a few more sentences and then sighed, flipping through her two and a half pages full of writing.

 _And that was just a report on one of the five flowers I had to write on._ Marinette groaned and thunked her head against the wooden table. She sat like that for a few minutes before suddenly jolting and ripping her head up, frantically glancing out the window. Thankfully it wasn't suddenly sunset. She hadn't fallen asleep.

"Unless I'm dreaming," Marinette said out loud, and suddenly her face got horrified. She pinched her own wrist and then sighed in relief when nothing changed.

"I'm going insane."

Marinette pushed her stool back and got up, swaying a little. She placed her hands on the table- more like slammed, really- to steady herself and took deep and even breaths.

She blinked when she heard a slight commotion from downstairs. The girl rushed down (nearly tripping five times, her life had never flashed before her eyes so many times before) and gasped to see lots of the soldiers sitting up and talking and even _laughing merrily_.

"Oh, Marinette!" Duusu quickly finished ladling soup out into a bowl for the last soldier and rushed over to her. "I figured you had lots of work so I distributed the medicine." Duusu blinked. "Uhh Marinette? You okay?"

Marinette looked just about ready to cry and she enveloped Duusu in a sudden and tight hug. "You're a saint Duusu," she rambled, "a true true true saint…"

Duusu laughed and patted Marinette on the back. "You should finish your work soon, there are two more shifts."

Marinette pulled back and nodded. "Yeah. I know. Thanks."

Duusu nodded to her and then pulled away to return the empty pot and ladle to the sink. Marinette took one more glance outside before heading back up the stairs to continue her work.

…

Six pages of nonstop writing later, there was a sudden knock on her door. Marinette looked up, startled, and squinted her eyes in the bright sunlight that was suddenly streaming through the window in front of her desk. When did that happen?

She then looked towards the door and did a double take when she saw that it was _Adrien_ standing there. What? Wasn't he supposed to be out hunting bandits?

"Hey, Marinette," he said as greeting when she looked his way. He walked inside the room with a satisfactory smile on his face. "We just got back from dropping the bandits off at the castle."

Marinette blinked and said a very intelligent "Oh." Her cheeks immediately burned with the thought of how dumb she must've sounded then.

However Adrien didn't seem to notice her shorter response or if he did he chose to forsake it to instead stand next to her and point out the window. "Look."

Marinette got up curiously and peered out the window. A smile grew on her face when she saw lots of soldiers outside, plowing snow and loudly conversing. She opened the window.

"Are you sure you feel good enough to be doing that?" She shouted, and the soldiers suddenly paused in their conversation and cheered.

"It's Marinette!" One man said loudly with a grin. "Your medicine did wonders!"

"Yeah but I think you still need to give me a physical check-"

"Oi," Adrien stuck his head out the window next to Marinette's good naturedly and the soldier cut off with a high pitched shriek. Laughter erupted below them. "Don't tire yourself out too much, yeah?"

"Aye sir!" The shouts chorused from below and Adrien backed away from the window, beaming.

"You're amazing," was all he said when he turned to Marinette, and she could feel her cheeks getting slightly pink. "All those soldiers down there got better so fast because of you! I knew you would be able to do it." He patted Marinette's shoulder.

"Um, thanks," she said. Then her eyes widened. "Oh, that reminds me, I need to go down and deliver a few things to the place where messengers come." She stacked up items inside a box until it was full to the top and hefted it with both hands before turning to him. "I'll see you later?"

Adrien offered her a bright smile. "Definitely."

She beamed back at him in turn before carefully heading out the door and down the stairs.

…

Nathaniel casually sat on top of the roof of the second story of the fort, swinging his legs on the edge. The sun had risen and it was making the snow everything glitter way too brightly for his liking. If it were spring or summer right about now there'd be birds chirping everywhere. He'd head inside soon.

Nathaniel got up and was about to jump off the building so he could go inside when he spotted a person walking through the halls.

That person, he found out, was Marinette.

Nathaniel curiously watched as she paused to readjust what looked like a heavy box in her arms before starting off again… and promptly falling forward.

He was there in an instant, but Marinette had already saved herself by letting the box drop onto its bottom first and leaning her weight onto it. She looked surprised, and then suddenly her head spun around and she pinned Nathaniel down with a scary glare. Nathaniel instantly whipped his hands up in surrender as an instinct and feared for his life.

Then Marinette's glare eased down and he sighed with relief, clutching his heart. Marinette was quiet and she just blinked before picking up a few stray papers which had fallen from the stack and placing them on top of the box again. She got up and it seemed like picking up the box was harder for her this time.

"You're tired," Nathaniel bluntly stated, and Marinette gave him a sideways glance. "I _should_ tell Adrien about this, you know. But why don't you tell him? Or anybody for that matter?"

Marinette looked to the side where they could see the soldiers plowing the snow with no low level of noise. "You see all those soldiers? They're happy, right?"

Nathaniel followed her line of sight and furrowed his eyebrows, not seeing where she was going with it. "Yeah."

Marinette offered him a small smile. "Wouldn't want to worry them again."

Then she was off again with Nathaniel staring open-mouthed at her retreating back. _She's crazy._

…

Adrien made his way down to the main room, where there were many soldiers cleaning up along with Duusu, Alya, and Nino. Nathaniel had gone outside for "fresh air" but Adrien suspected he was out swinging on the trees like the monkey he was.

The atmosphere of the room was completely opposite from the night before: the soldiers that were cleaning off the dust were happier than they'd been in weeks, and since all the dust was being wiped off the sunlight that filtered through the windows brightened the place up and seemed to make it shine.

"Adrien," Alya greeted, noticing him first. "How's Marinette?"

"She was doing her tailoring work when I went in," he replied. "And then she left since she needed to drop some things off."

"Then after that she's going to made the midday batch of medicine," Duusu said. She registered her own words and then her eyebrows furrowed, much like the others'. "Hold on. There are eight hour shifts between each medicine distribution."

"She started working on it last night," Nino continued warily. "And on top of that she said she had her own work to do, too…"

Adrien could slowly feel worry filtering through him. If she was up making medicine and distributing it for each shift, and also working on her own reports, then… when did she get to sleep?

Answer: she didn't.

"I can't believe I didn't notice," Adrien muttered to himself. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"She's crazy," Nathaniel said, and Adrien turned to see him climbing in through the window. When his feet touched the ground he continued, "She said she didn't want anyone to worry after they all got happy again."

Adrien clenched his fist. "When she comes back, will she come in the kitchen to make the medicine?"

Duusu silently nodded and Adrien exited the kitchen. "I'll wait for her," he called back to them. "Then I'll make sure she gets some rest."

Nathaniel, Alya, Nino and Duusu watched Adrien go. "I'll make the medicine then," Duusu said determinedly. "I was with Marinette when she made it the first time so I know how."

"We'll help," Alya, Nino and Nathaniel simultaneously said. They looked at each other before snorting with laughter. Duusu grinned at them all.

"Okay, Nathaniel you should grind the herbs, Alya peel the potatoes and Nino will cut them…"

…

Adrien sat outside in the cold. He didn't even process the cold, though, as he sat waiting for Marinette. All he could do was to think back to their short interaction and just berate himself.

 _What kind of person am I? How did I not notice that Marinette of all people was feeling tired? She always knows when the littlest thing is up with me, and here I am. Voila, everyone! Your typical, self-absorbed Prince-_

"Adrien?" Adrien snapped out of his thoughts and jumped up from his sitting position when he saw Marinette standing there in front of him with an empty box in her hands. "What are you doing outside?"

"Uhh- let me take that for you," Adrien evaded her question and instead took the box from her hands. Marinette grew confused and opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing when suddenly he placed a hand on the small of her back and steered her inside.

"It's cold outside, it's warm inside," he said in a sing-song voice and Marinette idly wondered if he was going insane too. "Great temperature indoors for sleeping, no?"

"Sleeping?" Marinette said, testing the word out as if it were a foreign concept. Then suddenly she blinked and realized what was happening and spun around to face Adrien.

"Sleep? Nononono," she said, and then laughed. A small part of her wondered if she was sounding crazy. "No, I still need to make a batch of medicine and that takes a long ti-"

"You're covered," Adrien interrupted, and she stared up at him with her blue eyes in total confusion. He lightly grabbed her wrist with his free hand and dragged her towards the kitchen to show Alya, Nathaniel, Nino and Duusu in all their glory.

"Nathaniel, are you nearly done yet- NATHANIEL!" Duusu exploded and the redhead shrieked. "You were supposed to grind the herbs into a powder, not a paste! How did you even do that?!"

"I'm not a chef," he retorted. "And does it even make a difference in the end?"

"Soups aren't pasty," Duusu quipped back without a pause and went on to look at Alya's potatoes. "You do know that the eyes are supposed to be taken out, right?"

Alya held up a potato with a wondrous look in her eyes. "So you don't eat the eyes. Interesting."

Duusu shook her head and went on to Nino. Nino tensed up, ready to receive his admonishing. "Good job," Duusu finally said after examining the cut up chunks of potatoes. "Somebody knows what he's doing." Nino sagged in relief.

"You know, Duusu, I thought you were a nice girl until now," Alya dryly said, and Nathaniel nodded his agreement. The four of them were suddenly startled and made aware of two laughing people at the entrance of the kitchen.

" Marinette! Prince Adrien!" Duusu exclaimed. "O-Oh, this- don't worry the medicine will be fine I swear! Even with Nathaniel helping!"

"Why are you singling me out?"

Marinette was tenderly smiling at them all, clutching her sides from laughing too hard. "You guys, thanks so much. I just… thanks."

They smiled back at her. "No problem," Alya said softly, "now go get some sleep." At that she winked at Adrien- something he thanked the high heavens above that Marinette didn't see- and he glared back half-heartedly before going upstairs with Marinette.

Marinette yawned loudly as she laid down in the bed after taking her shoes off. Now that she was actually laying down, it was getting harder and harder to keep her eyelids open. But still, she just had to say-

"Thank you." She looked up at Adrien, who was sitting on the edge of her bed.

Adrien opened his mouth to say something, but then seemed to think of something else and instead said, "You can tell me these types of things, you know. If you're too tired or you just need a break or… anything," he looked into Marinette's eyes to make sure she knew he wasn't lying. "Don't hide it from me."

Marinette sleepily smiled. "Don't worry. I won't anymore."

Adrien nodded for a little while and then hesitantly reached out and grabbed her hand. "You're an inspiration, you know?"

He got a snore in response.

Adrien jerked in surprise and stared wide-eyed at Marinette before covering his mouth to hide his snickers. He stood up and pulled the covers over Marinette and tucked them under her chin, brushing a few locks of hair out of her eyes.

Then his face suddenly turned irritated as he stood there leaning over her bed. "Shouldn't you be in the kitchen?"

"They kicked me out," Nathaniel replied as he grinned from the doorway. "I'm _so_ writing this down for future references."

" _Don't you dare."_

 **Next chapter won't be an episode at all, I still got some stuff planned :P IN case you didn't catch it maybe you should reread Plagg and Tikki's conversation, because while they may not have a superhero secret to reveal they've something else up their sleeves instead ;-) take your guesses HEHEHE**

 **also sorry for any crappy mistakes I legit wrote this out in a day.. :I**


	6. Chapter 6

**this does not follow the script (even vaguely) of any episode in akagami no shirayukihime~**

 **ALSO, what are in Marinette's BOXES?! What did Tikki give to her?! I've been keeping you all in the dark the past few chapters and…**

… **I will for this one too. LOL sorry (not sorry whoops)**

 **Anyways this one is sort of a filler chapter, "sort of" as in its good contribution to the plot but there's … no real thing going on? It's your typical flashback, there, that's what it is. I didn't wanna do it but its gotta be done. This one will be shorter.**

 **Hopefully it won't bore you though. I'll do my best!**

When it came to the royal Agreste family and their company, there wasn't much that one could do if they weren't a rich duke or duchess. That was, unless they were Tom Dupain or Sabine Cheng.

Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng were by no means royals. They weren't extravagantly wealthy in coins, albeit being well-off. They were almost your typical village bakers- the key word being _almost._ Tom and Sabine led a hearty tribe of men and women who were just like them: kind-hearted but harboring a strong sense of justice. It'd started mainly when a person attempting to rob their bakery had suddenly seen Tom running in and fled out of fear; ever since then, villagers made jokes about how Sabine and Tom could stop crime. And so the couple responded, "Why not?"

They called themselves "Bears of the Mountains", something that Tom would always laugh at (he was the infamous "half-bear half-man of the village), and as their numbers grew steadily until they had a sizeable tribe, they all built a village for themselves in the mountains. The Bears of the Mountains stopped countless numbers of crimes that weaved through the mountains; kidnappings, robberies, harmful substances being smuggled in, the list went on and on. The royal queen back at the castle took notice of all the crimes being reported and stopped by the mysterious "Bears of the Mountains" and, in her curiosity, she extended an invitation for them to have dinner at the castle as a thank you.

Tom and Sabine both agreed to pay a visit, and the two of them went to the castle together for dinner with Queen Agreste. It seemed like fate had this in place for the adults, as the three of them clicked- Sabine and the Queen especially so- and the dinner outings became weekly. At times Tom couldn't go, but Sabine made sure to never miss a meeting with her good friend. Lords and dukes looked down critically upon the visiting bakers and clansmen, but the Dupain-Chengs and the Bears of the Mountains paid them no mind.

It was four years later that the Queen had a son, a boy with her golden hair and spring-green eyes. He was her pride and joy, and she named him Adrien. Two months later Sabine gave birth to Marinette Dupain-Cheng; a girl with midnight blue hair and bluebell eyes and a smattering of freckles across her nose. Marinette and Adrien inevitably grew up together; Sabine began caring for her child and, upon Tom's insistencies as well as her own preferences, didn't go out on mountain hunts and patrols. She visited the castle nearly every day with Marinette. Marinette and Adrien clicked much like their mothers had, if not faster. As time went on, little Marinette and Adrien stayed fast friends, nearly inseparable. Marinette, at the age of five, had her first sleepover at the Agreste castle with her best friend Adrien. The network of nobles didn't like that too much. Two weeks later Adrien went to the Bears of the Mountains' village for _his_ first sleepover. The network of nobles didn't like that much either. The Queen, Sabine and Tom didn't care, and Marinette and Adrien definitely didn't care if their joy was anything to go by.

The next two years, Marinette and Adrien formulated and played their best masterpiece of a game ever: "The Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir". It was quite the long name, but no name could ever be long enough to describe the epic spectacle. Marinette, as Ladybug due to her fascination for the lucky bugs, and Adrien, as Chat Noir due to his family's crest being a black cat, would venture out onto castle and village grounds alike to put an end to evil. Servants at the castle and tribespeople from the mountains chuckled and went along with their game, playing the bad guys and letting the two children "serve justice". The Queen herself found it highly amusing and often played along. Adrien's most trusted attendant, Plagg, was the main player in this game of theirs. Plagg and Marinette became partners-in-crime, often pranking Adrien and laughing equally as loudly afterwards.

Their game time being cut short only frequented overtime. Adrien, being eight years old, was seen to be a suitable enough age to start his swordplay lessons with Plagg. More often than not these lessons cut into the time that Marinette and Adrien spent together, and so Marinette decided to ask her fellow villagers for training as well. Her parents had well taught her how to bake and sew- she especially took to sewing- but in order to keep up with her counterpart "Chat Noir" she wanted to learn how to fight, too.

As with the sewing, Marinette turned out to be a natural at the kusarigama. After the sword lesson had ended unfortunately, and the bow-and-arrow lesson ended dangerously, the tribesmen were hesitant about letting Marinette lay hand on a kusarigama- being a much more fluid and difficult weapon to control- but at last they decided that it'd do less harm (or they hoped). Once they handed it to her, it was like a switch was flipped: Marinette easily parried attacks and used the chain of her kusarigama to wind around swords and yank them out of hand. Soon enough, as it was, Marinette forgot the whole reason she started learning. "The Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir" slipped from the mind of Adrien, caught up the fencing lessons and royal studies suddenly thrusted upon him.

One year later, Queen Agreste disappeared. From then on it was like Marinette's and Adrien's few visits with each other went down the drain. The king refused to let Adrien outside of the Agreste lands. With the Queen's disappearance, the crime upsurged to an all-time high because more knights were guarding the castle than patrolling the grounds themselves. This ultimately led to the Bears of the Mountains having to be out and about more and more, and Tom and Sabine- in their deep worry for Marinette- did the one thing that they could think of doing, and that was giving her up to Master Fu, a wise and trusted old man from the village who could no longer battle. He took Marinette to a safe town in the Barbot lands. Marinette never got to say goodbye to Adrien, and after a while of wondering where she'd gone, Adrien forgot about her as well, too caught up in the grief of his mother and his packed schedule which kept him busy always. Plagg, who felt for Adrien, offered to tone down the swordplay lessons but to his surprise Adrien refused. The young prince surged forward with a strong desire to protect those he loved. This desire sometimes clouded his judgement, and unfortunately it only served to fog over old, feeble memories as well.

Life seemed to be a dark and clashing storm for a couple of years. However, things started to look up for both of them, slowly but surely. A beacon of light in the form of Tikki arrived to the home in which Marinette lived with Master Fu. Marinette didn't know how, but she seemed to know Master Fu very well. She offered to teach and train Marinette, and the girl readily accepted. For some reason, Tikki's ladybug-esque appearance- with her red and black hair and deep blue eyes- struck a chord within Marinette but she didn't know why. Marinette and Tikki quickly grew accustomed to and loved each other dearly.

When Adrien was fifteen, two people his very age came to the castle as his personal attendants. Usually, people so young weren't allowed to have such high-ranking jobs, but Alya Cesaire and Nino Lahiffe were different. Alya was in the castle due to her mother being the head chef. Nino was in the castle due to his parents working for the music and entertainments of the place. Because they were already in the castle, their talents quickly shone through, and when they met with Prince Adrien, it was as if the three of them were meant to go places together. Alya and Nino were appointed as his personal attendants and Adrien couldn't be happier. With the next two years, more and more people came to the castle who Adrien became fast friends with, none of which were high ranking like the critical nobles would have wanted. Adrien couldn't have cared less.

Four years passed this way, until Marinette and Adrien were both nineteen. She, in her home far away from where her childhood resided and he, in the castle, ever unaware of what had been there before. Marinette sewed herself a red hood with the spots of a ladybug on it- she'd always been fascinated by the bugs, and for some reason it simply felt right-and it became something she always wore. Adrien finished with his main fencing courses with Plagg and was given a real sword, proudly bearing the black cat crest. With that he was allowed out of the castle grounds as well and he took it in stride, using nearly every free second of the day to explore.

With those two items, bearing lost memories, they met once again. Marinette could have easily woken up three minutes earlier, and set off moments before Adrien (rashly) decided to leap off from the house's rooftop, and Adrien could have avoided a minor arm injury and been on his way. But destiny had other plans.

When Marinette returned with Adrien to the castle after overcoming Theo Barbot, Plagg and Tikki hid matching smiles and both separately, coincidentally, wrote to Master Fu one simple sentence:

 _Those two really are meant to be together._

 **Ooh, so we got some background? Don't worry, I won't just throw this out here just to explain that tidbit from last chapter. I will build on it.**

 **WAIT! DON'T GO! I really need help! For the next chapter- and this is a pretty influential decision- who should I use as Adrien's "older" figure—Gabriel, or Felix?! I know I mentioned Gabriel indirectly this chapter, but the bit with Felix can still be done. If Gabriel was chosen of course I'd change his interactions with Marinette from the ones in the show.**

 **Please leave reviews with what you think! THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO PATIENT AND AWESOME! LOVE YA BUNCHES!**


End file.
